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Castles and Chateaux of Old Navarre 

and the Basque Provinces 



WORKS OF 




FRANCIS MILT UN 




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Castles and Cb xteaux 



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OLD NA^ ARRE 

AND THE BASQU PROVINCES 



INCLfniNO ALSO FOIX, RC SSILLON AND BEARN 



B ^ Franc s M i l t o u n 

Author of " Canles ;• ' Ii eaux of 0)i1 Touraine," " Rambles 
in Nomi.' ibles in Brittany," " Rambles 

e Riviera," etc. 

IVi// Many Jllustraticr^s 
By Blanche McManus 




Bo STON 

L. C. PAGE & COMPANY 

1907 



303IHA .^'HT '-••d JHIO 






/i'VM','C' ■<-■ '•^''l 






Castles and Chateaux 

OF 

OLD NAVARRE 

AND THE BASQUE PROVINCES 

INCLUDING ALSO FOIX, ROUSSILLON AND BEARN 

By Francis Miltoun 

Author of " Castles and Chateaux of Old Touraine," " Rambles 

in Normandy," "Rambles in Brittany," "Rambles 

on the Riviera," etc. 

With Many Illustrations 

Reproduced from paintings made on the spot 

By Blanche McManus 




Bo STON 

L. C. PAGE & COMPANY 

1907 



LIBRARY of CONGRESS 
Two Copies Received 

NOV 19 i907 

CepyriElU' Entry 

Ncv.2o /907 

CLASS/* ^XX<. td, 
' /copy 8. 



^ 



^v' 



^ 



'V 



Copyright, igoy 
By L, C. Page & Company 

(incorporated) 



All rischts reserved 



First Impression, October, 1907 .' 



COLON-IAL PRESS 

Electrotyped and Printed by C. H. Simonds &» Co. 

Boston, U. S. A. 



By Wa / of Introduction 



" Cecy est un livre de bonne foy." 

Montaigne. 

No account of the life and historical monu- 
ments of any section of the old French prov- 
inces can be made to confine its scope within 
geographical or topographical limits. The 
most that can be accomplished is to centre the 
interest around some imaginary hub from 
which radiate leading lines of historic and 
romantic interest. 

Henri de Navarre is the chief romantic and 
historical figure of all that part of France 
bounded on the south by the Pyrenean fron- 
tier of Spain. He was but a Prince of Beam 
when his mother, Jeanne d'Albret, became the 
sovereign of French Navarre and of Beam, 
but the romantic life which had centred around 
the ancestral chateau at Pau was such that the 
young prince went up to Paris with a training 
in chivalry and a love of pomp and splendour 
which was second only to that of Francois I. 



vi By Way of Introduction 

The little kingdom of Navarre, the principal- 
ity of Beam, and the dukedoms and countships 
iwhich surround them, from the Mediterranean 
on the east to the Gulf of Gascony on the west, 
are so intimately connected with the gallant 
doings of men and women of those old days 
that" the region known as the Pyrenean prov- 
inces of the later monarchy of France stands 
in a class by itself with regard to the romance 
and chivalry of feudal days. 

The dukes, counts and seigneurs of Langue- 
doc and Gascony have been names to conjure 
with for the novelists of the Dumas school; 
and, too, the manners and customs of the ear- 
lier troubadours and crusaders formed a mo- 
tive for still another coterie of fictionists of 
the romantic school. In the Comte de Foix 
one finds a link which binds the noblesse of 
the south with that of the north. It is the 
story of Frangoise de Foix, who became the 
Marquise de Chateaubriant, the wife of Jean de 
Laval, that Breton Bluebeard whose atrocities 
were almost as great as those of his brother 
of the fairy tale. And the ties are numerous 
which have joined the chatelains of these 
feudal chateaux and courts of the Midi with 
those of the Domain of France. 

These petty countships, dukedoms and king- 



By Way of Introduction 



vu 



doms of the Pyrenees were absorbed into 
France in 1789, and to-day their nomenclature 
has disappeared from the geographies; but 
the habitant of the Basses Pyrenees, the Py- 
renees Orientales, and the Hautes Pyrenees 
keeps the historical distinctions of the past 
as clearly defined in his own mind as if he 
were living in feudal times. The Bearnais re- 
fers contemptuously to the men of Roussillon 
as Catalans, and to the Basques as a wild, 
weird kind of a being, neither French nor 
Spanish. 

The geographical limits covered by the ac- 
tual journeyings outlined in the following pages 
skirt the French slopes of the Pyrenees from 
the Atlantic Gulf of Gascony to the Mediter- 
ranean Gulf of Lyons, and so on to the mouths 
of the Rhone, where they join another series 
of recorded rambles, conceived and already 
evolved into a book by the same author and 
artist.^ The whole itinerary has been care- 
fully thought out and minutely covered in 
many journeyings by road and rail, crossing 
and recrossing from east to west and from west 
to east that delectable land commonly known 
to the Parisian Frenchman as the Midi. 

1" Castles and Ch&teauz of Old Touraine and the Loire 
Country." 



viii By Way of Introduction 

The contrasts with which one meets in going 
between the extreme boundaries of east and 
west are very great, both with respect to men 
and to manners; the Ni§ois is no brother of 
the Basque, though they both be swarthy and 
speak a patois, even to-day as unlike modern 
French as is the speech of the Breton or the 
Flamand. The Catalan of Koussillon is quite 
unlike the LanguedoQian of the Camargue 
plain, and the peasant of the Aude or the 
Ariege bears little or no resemblance in speech 
or manners to the Bearnais. 

There is a subtle charm and appeal in the 
magnificent feudal chateaux and fortified bourgs 
of this region which is quite different from 
the warmer emotions awakened by the great 
Renaissance masterpieces of Touraine and the 
Loire country. Each is irresistible. Whether 
one contemplates the imposing chateau at Pau, 
or the more delicately conceived Chenonceaux; 
the old walled Cite of Carcassonne, or the walls 
and ramparts of Clisson or of Angers; the 
Roman arena at Nimes, or the Roman Arc de 
Triomphe at Saintes, there is equal charm and 
contrast. 

To the greater appreciation, then, of the peo- 
ple of Southern France, and of the gallant 



By Way of Introduction ix 

types of the Pyrenean provinces in particular, 
the following pages have been written and 
illustrated. f. m. 

Perpignan, August, 1907. 




I. 
II. 

ni. 

IV. 
V. 

VI. 

VII. 
VIII. 

IX. 
X 

XI. 

XII, 
XIII. 
XIV. 

XV. 
XVI. 



K PAOK 

By Way of Introduction . . . . v 

A General Survey 1 

Feudal France — Its People and Its 

Chateaux 18 

The Pyrenees — Their Geography and 

Topography 46 

The Pyrenees — Their History and People 73 

roussillon and the catalans ... 95 

From Perpignan to the Spanish Frontier 110 

The Canigou and- Andorra .... 130 
The High Valley of the Aude . . .152 

The Walls of Carcassonne • • • 161 

The Counts of Foix 1'^^ 

Foix AND Its Chateau 1^^ 

The Valley of the ARifeGK . • • 197 
St. Ltzier and the Couserans . • .211 

The Pays de Comminges .... 222 

BfiARN and the Bi6arnais .... 230 

Of the History and Topography of Bi^arn 244 



Vl 



Contents 



CHAPTER PAGB 

XVII. Pau and Its Chateau . . . . 258 

XVIII. Lescar, the Sepulchre of the B^arnais 278 

XIX. The Gave d'Ossau 287 

XX. Tarbes, Bigorre and Luchon . . . 297 

XXL By the Blue Gave de Pau . . . 307 

XXII. Oloron and the Val d'Aspe . . . 324 

XXIII. Orthez and the Gave d'Oloron . . 335 

XXIV. The Birth of French Navarre . . 354 
XXV. The Basques 372 

XXVI. Saint- Jean -Pied -DE -Port and the Col 

DE RON^EVAUX ..... 393 

XXVII. The Valley of the Nive . . . 405 

XXVIII. Bayonne : Its Port and Its VTalls . 413 

XXIX. Biarritz and Saint- Jean -de- Luz . 422 

XXX. The Bidassoa and the Frontier . . 436 

Index 449 




A Peasant Girl of the ARifeoE 

The Pyrenean Provinces Map 

Watch-tower in the Val d'Andorre 

Feudal Flags and Banners . 

The Peaks of the Pyrenees (Map) 

Breche de Roland 

The Col de Perthus (Map) 

The Five Proposed Railways (Map) 

Stations Thermales (Map) 

The Basques of the Mountains 

In a Pyrenean Hermitage 

A Mountaineer of the Pyrenees 

GiTANOS FROM SpAIN . 

RoussiLLON (]\rap) 

Catalans of Roussillon . 

The Women op Roussillon 

Arms of Perpignan 

Porte J^'otre Dame and the Castillet, 

Chateau Roussillon .... 
colliourk 



PAGE 

Frontispiece 



facing 
facing 



facing 



facing 
facing 
facing 



1 

24 

32 

49 

50 

57 

68 

69 

74 

78 

84. 

91 

95 



facing 08 

facing 100 

. 110 
Perpignan 

facing 112 

facing 118 

facing 124 



xvi List of Illustrations 

PAQB 

Chateau d'Ultrera facing 126 - 

The Pilgrimage to St. Martin . . facing 132 ^ 

ViLLEFRANCHE facing 142 / 

Arms of Andorra 147 

Chateau de Puylaurens .... facing 154 

AxAT facing 158 

Plan of Carcassonne (Diagram) .... 164 

The Walls of Carcassonne . . . facing 166 y 

Ground Plan of the Chateau de Foix (Diagram) . 190 

Chateau de Foix facing 190 

Key of the Vaulting, Chateau de Foix, Showing 

THE Arms of the Comtes de Foix . . . 191 

Tarascon-sur- Ariege .... facing 202 

Chateau de Lourdat facing 210 

St. Lizier facing 216/ 

Trained Bears of the ValliSe d'Ustou . facing 218 / 

St. Bertrand de Comminges . . . facing 224 - 

Pau and the Surrounding Country (Map) . . 258 

Arms of the City of Pau 259 

Chateau de Pau facing 268 ' 

Espadrille -makers facing 288 > 

A Shepherd of Bigorre .... facing 302 

Chateau de Coarraze .... facing 308 

Chateau de Lourdes facing 314 

Cauterets facing 318 

The Pont d'Orthez facing 338* 

The Walls of Navarreux . . . facing 346 

B^arn and Navarre (Map) ..... 354 
Kings of Basse - Navarre and Kings of France 

and Navarre (Diagram) 360 

The Arms of Navarre 362 

Arms of Henri IV of France and Navarre facing 368 

The Basque Country (Map) . . . . . 372 

The Game of Pelota facing 378 

« Le Chevalet " . . . . . . facing 390 



List of Illustrations xvii 

PAGE 

The Quaint Streets of Saint - Jean - Pied - de - 

Port facing 394 

Arms of Bayonne 413 

A Gateway of Bayonne .... facing 414 

Biarritz and the Surrounding Country (Map) . 422 

Biarritz facing 424 

St. -Jean-de -Luz facing 430 

Ile de Faisans (Map) 437 

The Frontier at Hendaye (Map) .... 441 

Maison Pierre Loti, Hendaye . . . facing 442 

In Old Feuntabrabia .... facing 446 



^ePYRENEAN 

PROVINCES 




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Castles and Chateaux 
of Old Navarre 

and the Basque Provinces 



CHAPTER I 

A GENERAL SURVEY 

This book is no record of exploitation or 
discovery ; it is simply a review of many things 
seen and heard anent that marvellous and com- 
paratively little known region vaguely de- 
scribed as " the Pyrenees," of which the old 
French provinces (and before them the inde- 
pendent kingdoms, countships and dukedoms) 
of Beam, Navarre, Foix and Roussillon are 
the chief and most familiar. 

The region has been known as a touring 

ground for long years, and mountain climbers 

who have tired of the monotony of the Alps 

have found much here to quicken their jaded 

appetites. Besides this, there is a wealth of 

1 



2 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

historic fact and a quaintness of men and 
manners throughout all this wonderful coun- 
try of infinite variety, which has been little 
worked, as yet, by any but the guide-book 
makers, who deal with only the dryest of 
details and with little approach to complete- 
ness. 

The monuments of the region, the historic 
and ecclesiastical shrines, are numerous enough 
to warrant a very extended review, but they 
have only been hinted at once and again by 
travellers who have usually made the round of 
the resorts like Biarritz, Pau, Luchon and 
Lourdes their chief reason for coming here 
at all. 

Delightful as are these places, and a half a 
dozen others whose names are less familiar, 
the little known townlets with their historic 
sites — such as Mazeres, with its Chateau de 
Henri Quatre, Navarreux, Mauleon, Morlaas, 
Nay, and Bruges (peopled originally by Flam- 
ands) — make up an itinerary quite as impor- 
tant as one composed of the names of places 
writ large in the guide-books and in black type 
on the railway-maps. 

The region of the Pyrenees is most accessi- 
ble, granted it is off the regular beaten travel 
track. The tide of Mediterranean travel is 



A General Survey 



breaking hard upon its shores to-day; but few 
who are washed ashore by it go inland from 
Barcelona and Perpignan, and so on to the 
old-time little kingdoms of the Pyrenees. 
Fewer still among those who go to southern 
France, via Marseilles, ever think of turning 
westward instead of eastward — the attraction 
of Monte Carlo and its satellite resorts is too 
great. The same is true of those about to 
' ^ do " the Spanish tour, which usually means 
Holy Week at Seville, a day in the Prado and 
another at the Alhambra and Grenada, Toledo 
of course, and back again north to Paris, or to 
take ship at G-ibraltar. En route they may 
have stopped at Biarritz, in France, or San 
Sebastian, in Spain, because it is the vogue 
just at present, but that is all. 

It was thus that we had known '' the 
Pyrenees." We knew P'au and its ancestral 
chateau of Henri Quatre; had had a look at 
Biarritz; had been to Lourdes, Luchon and 
Tarbes and even to Cauterets and Bigorre, 
and to Foix, Carcassonne and Toulouse, but 
those were reminiscences of days of railway 
travel. Since that time the automobile has 
come to make travel in out-of-the-way places 
easy, and instead of having to bargain for a 
sorry hack to take us through the Gorges de 



4 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

Pierre Lys, or from Perpignan to Prats-de- 
Mollo we found an even greater pleasure in 
finding our own way and setting our own pace. 

This is the way to best know a country not 
one's own, and whether we were contempla- 
ting the spot where Charlemagne and his fol- 
lowers met defeat at the hands of the Moun- 
taineers, or stood where the Romans erected 
their great trophee, high above Bellegarde, we 
were sure that we were always on the trail we 
would follow, and were not being driven hither 
and thither by a cocher who classed all 
strangers as " mere tourists," and pointed 
out a cavern with gigantic stalagmites or a 
profile rock as being the " chief sights " of 
his neighbourhood, when near by may have 
been a famous battle-ground or the chateau 
where was born the gallant Graston Phcebus. 
Really, tourists, using the word in its over- 
worked sense, are themselves responsible for 
much that is banal in the way of sights; they 
won't follow out their own predilections, but 
walk blindly in the trail of others whose tastes 
may not be their own. 

Travel by road, by diligence or omnibus, is 
more frequent all through the French depart- 
ments bordering on the Pyrenees than in any 
other part of France, save perhaps in 



A General Survey 



Dauphine and Savoie, and the linking up of 
various loose ends of railway by such a means 
is one of the delights of travel in these parts — 
if you don't happen to have an automobile 
handy. 

Beyond a mere appreciation of mediaeval 
architectural delights of chateaux, manoirs, 
and gentilhommieres of the region, this book 
includes some comments on the manner of 
living in those far-away times when chivalry 
flourished on this classically romantic ground. 
It treats, too, somewhat of men and manners 
of to-day, for here in this southwest corner 
of France much of modern life is but a 
reminiscence of that which has gone before. 

Many of the great spas of to-day, such as 
the Bagneres de Bigorre, Salies de Beam, 
Cauterets, Eaux-Bonnes, or Amelie les Bains, 
have a historic past, as well as a present vogue. 
They were known in some cases to the Romans, 
and were often frequented by the royalties of 
the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, and 
therein is another link which binds the present 
with the past. 

One feature of the region resulting from 
the alliance of the life of the princes, counts 
and seigneurs of the romantic past, with that 



6 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

of the monks and prelates of those times is 
the religious architecture. 

Since the overlord or seigneur of a small 
district was often an amply endowed arch- 
bishop or bishop, or the lands round about be- 
longed by ancient right to some community 
of monkish brethren, it is but natural that 
mention of some of their more notable works 
and institutions should have found a place 
herein. Where such inclusion is made, it is 
always with the consideration of the part 
played in the stirring affairs of mediaeval times 
by some fat monk or courtly prelate, who was, 
if not a compeer, at least a companion of the 
lay lords and seigneurs. 

Not all the fascinating figures of history 
have been princes and counts; sometimes they 
were cardinal-archbishops, and when they 
were wealthy and powerful seigneurs as well 
they became at once principal characters on the 
stage. Often they have been as romantic and 
chivalrous (and as intriguing and as greedy) 
as the most dashing hero who ever wore cloak 
and doublet. 

Still another species of historical charac- 
ters and monuments is found plentifully be- 
sprinkled through the pages of the chronicles 
of the Pyrenean kingdoms and provinces, and 



A General Survey 



that is the class which includes warriors and 
their fortresses. 

A castle may well be legitimately considered 
as a fortress, and a chateau as a country 
house; the two are quite distinct one from the 
other, though often their functions have been 
combined. 

Throughout the Pyrenees are many little 
walled towns, fortifications, watch-towers and 
what not, architecturally as splendid, and as 
great, as the most glorious domestic establish- 
ment of Renaissance days. The cite of Carcas- 
sonne, more especially, is one of these. Carcas- 
sonne's chateau is as naught considered with- 
out the ramparts of the mediseval cite, but 
together, what a splendid historical souvenir 
they form! The most splendid, indeed, that 
still exists in Europe, or perhaps that ever did 
exist. 

Prats-de-Mollo and its walls, its tower, and 
the defending Fort Bellegarde ; Saint Bertrand 
de Comminges and its walls; or even the 
quaintly picturesque defences of Vauban at 
Bayonne, where one enters the city to-day 
through various gateway breaches in the walls, 
are all as reminiscent of the vivid life of the 
history-making past, as is Henri Quatre's 



8 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

tortoise-shell cradle at Pan, or Gaston de Foix' 
ancestral chateau at Mazeres. 

Mostly it is the old order of things with 
which one comes into contact here, but the 
blend of the new and old is sometimes 
astonishing. Luchon and Pau and Tarbes and 
Lourdes, and many other places for that mat- 
ter, have over-progressed. This has been 
remarked before now ; the writer is not alone in 
his opinion. 

The equal of the charm of the Pyrenean 
country, its historic sites, its quaint peoples, 
and its scenic splendours does not exist in all 
France. It is a blend of French and Spanish 
manners and blood, lending a colour-scheme 
to life that is most enjoyable to the seeker 
after new delights. 

Before the Revolution, France was divided 
into fifty-two provinces, made up wholly from 
the petty states of feudal times. Of the 
southern provinces, seven in all, this book 
deals in part with Gascogne (capital Auch), 
the Comte de Foix (capital Foix), Roussillon 
(capital Perpignan), Haute-Languedoc (capital 
Toulouse), and Bas-Languedoc (capital Mont- 
pellier). Of the southwest provinces, a part of 
Guyenne (capital Bordeaux) is included, also 



A General Survey 9 

Navarre (capital Saint- Jean-Pied-de-Port) and 
Beam (capital Pan). 

Besides these general divisions, there were 
many minor petits pays compressed within the 
greater, such as Armagnac, Comminges, the 
Condanois, the Pays-Entre-Deux-Mers, the 
Landes, etc. These, too, naturally come within 
the scope of this book. 

Finally, in the new order of things, the 
ancient provinces lost their nomenclature after 
the Revolution, and the Departement of the 
Landes (and three others) was carved out of 
Guyenne; the Departement of the Basses- 
Pyrenees absorbed Navarre, Beam and the 
Basque provinces ; Bigorre became the Hautes- 
Pyrenees; Foix became Ariege; Roussillon be- 
came the Pyrenees-Orientales, and Haute-Lan- 
guedoc and Bas-Languedoc gave Herault, Gard, 
Haute-Garonne and the Aude. For the most 
part all come within the scope of these pages, 
and together these modem departements form 
an unbreakable historical and topographical 
frontier link from the Atlantic to the Medi- 
terranean. 

This bird's-eye view of the Pyrenean 
provinces, then, is a sort of picturesque, in- 
formal report of things seen and facts gar- 
nered through more or less familiarity with the 



10 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

region, its history, its institutions and its peo- 
ple. Chateaux and other historical monuments, 
agriculture and landscape, market-places and 
peasant life, all find a place here, inasmuch as 
all relate to one another, and all blend into that 
very nearly perfect whole which makes France 
so delightful to the traveller. 

Everywhere in this delightful region, 
whether on the mountain side or in the plains, 
the very atmosphere is charged with an ex- 
treme of life and colour, and both the 
physiognomy of landscape and the physiog- 
nomy of humanity is unfailing in its appeal to 
one's interest. 

Here there are no guide-book phrases in 
the speech of the people, no struggling lines of 
" conducted " tourists with a polyglot con- 
ductor, and no futile labelling of doubtful 
historic monuments; there are enough of un- 
doubted authenticity without this. 

Thoroughly tired and wearied of the prog- 
ress and super-civilization of the cities and 
towns of the well-worn roads, it becomes a 
real pleasure to seek out the by-paths of the 
old French provinces, and their historic and 
romantic associations, in their very crudities 
and fragments every whit as interesting as the 



A General Survey 11 

better known stamping-grounds of the con- 
ventional tourist. 

The folk of the Pyrenees, in their faces and 
figures, in their speech and customs, are as 
varied as their histories. They are a bright, 
gay, careless folk, with ever a care and a kind 
word for the stranger, whether they are 
Catalan, Basque or Bearnais. 

Since the economic aspects of a country 
have somewhat to do with its history it is im- 
portant to recognize that throughout the 
Pyrenees the grazing and wine-growing in- 
dustries predominate among agricultural pur- 
suits. 

There is a very considerable raising of sheep 
and of horses and mules, and somewhat of 
beef, and there is some growing of grain, but 
in the main — outside of the sheep-grazing of 
the higher valleys — it is the wine-growing 
industry that gives the distinctive note of 
activity and prosperity to the lower slopes 
and plains. 

For the above mentioned reason it is perhaps 
well to recount here just what the wine industry 
and the wine-drinking of France amounts to. 

One may have a preference for Burgundy or 
Bordeaux, Champagne or Saumur, or even 
plain, plebeian beer, but it is a pity that the 



12 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

great mass of wine-drinkers, outside of Con- 
tinental Europe, do not make their distinctions 
with more knowledge of wines when they say 
this or that is the best one, instead of making 
their estimate by the prices on the wine-card. 
Anglo-Saxons (English and Americans) are for 
the most part not connoisseurs in wine, be- 
cause they don't know the fundamental facts 
about wine-growing. 

For red wines the Bordeaux — less full- 
bodied and heavy — are very near rivals of the 
best Burgundies, and have more bouquet and 
more flavour. The Medocs are the best among 
Bordeaux wines. Chateau-Lafitte and Cha- 
teau-Latour are very rare in commerce and 
very high in price when found. They come 
from the commune of Pauillac. Chateau Mar- 
gaux, St. Estephe and St. Julien follow in the 
order named and are the leaders among the 
red wines of Bordeaux — when you get the 
real thing, which you don't at bargain store 
prices. 

The white wines of Bordeaux, the Graves, 
come from a rocky soil ; the Sauternes, with the 
vintage of Chateau d'Yquem, lead the list, 
with Barsac, Entre-Deux-Mers and St. Emi- 
lion following. There are innumerable second- 
class Bordeaux wines, but they need not be 



A General Survey 13 



enumerated, for if one wants a name merely 
there are plenty of wine merchants who will 
sell him any of the foregoing beautifully 
bottled and labelled as the " real thing." 

Down towards the Pyrenees the wines change 
notably in colour, price and quality, and they 
are good wines too. Those of Bergerac and 
Quercy are rich, red wines sold mostly in the 
markets of Cahors ; and the wines of Toulouse, 
grown on the sunny hill-slopes between 
Toulouse and the frontier, are thick, alcoholic 
wines frequently blended with real Bordeaux 
— to give body, not flavour. 

The wines of Armagnac are mostly turned 
into eau de vie, and just as good eau de vie as 
that of Cognac, though without its flavour, 
and without its advertising, which is the chief 
reason why the two or three principal brands 
of cognac are called for at the wine-dealers. 

At Chalosse, in the Landes, between Bayonne 
and Bordeaux, are also grown wines made 
mostly into eau de vie. 

Beam produces a light coloured wine, a 
specialty of the country, and an acquired taste 
like olives and Gorgonzola cheese. From 
Beam, also, comes the famous cru de Jurangon, 
celebrated since the days of Henri Quatre, a 
simple, full-bodied, delicious-tasting, red wine. 



14 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

Thirteen departemients of modern France 
comprise largely the wine-growing region of 
the basin of the Garonne, included in the 
territory covered by this book. This region 
gives a wine crop of thirteen and a half mil- 
lions of hectolitres a year. In thirty years 
the production has augmented by sixty per 
cent., and still dealers very often sell a fabri- 
cated imitation of the genuine thing. Wine 
drinking is increasing as well as alcoholism, 
regardless of what the doctors try to prove. 

The wines of the Midi of France in general 
are famous, and have been for generations, to 
bons vivants. The soil, the climate and pretty 
much everything else is favourable to the vine, 
from the Spanish frontier in the Pyrenees to 
that of Italy in the Alpes-Maritimes. The 
wines of the Midi are of three sorts, each quite 
distinct from the others; the ordinary table 
wines, the cordials, and the wines for dis- 
tilling, or for blending. Within the topo- 
graphical confines of this book one dis- 
tinguishes all three of these groups, those of 
Roussillon, those of Languedoc, and those of 
Armagnac. 

The rocky soil of Roussillon, alone, for ex- 
ample (neighbouring Collioure, Banyuls and 
Rivesaltes), gives each of the three, and the 



A General Survey 15 

heavy wines of the same region, for blending 
(most frequently with Bordeaux), are greatly 
in demand among expert wine-factors all over 
France. In the Departement de I'Aude, the 
wines of Lezignan and Ginestas are attached to 
this last group. The traffic in these wines is 
concentrated at Carcassonne and Narbonne. 
At Limoux there is a specialty known as Blan- 
quette de Limoux — a wine greatly esteemed, 
and almost as good an imitation of champagne 
as is that of Saumur. 

In Languedoc, in the Departement of Herault, 
and Grard, twelve millions of hectolitres are 
produced yearly of a heavy-bodied red wine, 
also largely used for fortifying other wines 
and used, naturally, in the neighbourhood, pure 
or mixed with water. This thinning out with 
water is almost necessary; the drinker who 
formerly got outside of three bottles of port 
before crawling under the table, would go to 
pieces long before he had consumed the same 
quantity of local wine unmixed with water at 
a Montpellier or Beziers table d'hote. 

At Cette, at Frontignan, and at Lunel are 
fabricated many '' foreign " wines, including 
the Malagas, the Maderes and the Xeres of 
commerce. Above all the Muscat de Fron- 
tignan is revered among its competitors, and 



16 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

it's not a " foreign " wine either, but the jnice 
of dried grapes or raisins, — grape juice if 
you like, — a sweet, mild dessert wine, very, 
very popular with the ladies. 

There is a considerable crop of table raisins 
in the Midi, particularly at Montauban and in 
maritime Provence which, if not rivalling 
those of Malaga in looks, have certainly a more 
delicate flavour. 

Along with the wines of the Midi may well 
be coupled the olives. For oil those of the 
Bouches-du-Rhone are the best. They bring 
the highest prices in the foreign market, but 
along the easterly slopes of the Pyrenees, in 
Eoussillon, in the Aude, and in Herault and 
Gard they run a close second. The olives of 
France are not the fat, plump, '' queen " 
olives, sold usually in little glass jars, but a 
much smaller, greener, less meaty variety, but 
richer in oil and nutriment. 

The olive trees grow in long ranks and files, 
amid the vines or even cereals, very much 
trimmed (in goblet shape, so that the ripening 
sun may reach the inner branches) and are of 
small size. Their pale green, shimmering 
foliage holds the year round, but demands a 
warm sunny climate. The olive trees of the 
Midi of France — as far west as the Comte 



A General Survey 17 

de Foix in the Pyrenees, and as far north as 
MonteHmar on the Rhone — are quite the 
most frequently noted characteristic of the 
landscape. The olive will not grow, however, 
above an altitude of four hundred metres. 

The foregoing pages outline in brief the 
chief characteristics of the present day aspect 
of the old Pyrenean French provinces of which 
Beam and Basse-Navarre, with the Comte de 
Foix were the heart and soul. 

The topographical aspect of the Pyrenees, 
their history, and as full a description of their 
inhabitants as need be given will be found in 
a section dedicated thereto. 

For the rest, the romantic stories of kings 
and counts, and of lords and ladies, and their 
feudal fortresses and Renaissance chateaux, 
with a mention of such structures of interest 
as naturally come within nearby vision will be 
found duly recorded further on. 



CHAPTER II 

FEUDAL FRANCE ITS PEOPLE AND ITS CHATEAUX 

It was not the Revolution alone that brought 
about a division of landed property in France. 
The Crusades, particularly that of Saint 
Bernard, accomplished the same thing, though 
perhaps to a lesser extent. The seigneurs were 
impoverished already by excesses of all kinds, 
and they sold parts of their lands to any who 
would buy, and on almost any terms. Some- 
times it was to a neighbouring, less powerful, 
seigneur ; sometimes to a rich bourgeois — 
literally a town-dweller, not simply one 
vulgarly rich — or even to an ecclesiastic ; and 
sometimes to that vague entity known as '' Ze 
peuple." The peasant proprietor was a factor 
in land control before the Revolution; the 
mere recollection of the fact that Louis-le- 
Hutin enfranchised the serfs demonstrates this. 

The serfdom of the middle ages, in some 
respects, did not differ from ancient slavery, 
and in the most stringent of feudal times there 
were numerous serfs, servants and labourers 

18 



Feudal France 19 

attached to the seigneur's service. These he 
sold, gave away, exchanged, or bequeathed, 
and in these sales, children were often 
separated from their parents. The principal 
cause of enfranchisement was the necessity for 
help which sprang from the increase in the 
value of land. A sort of chivalric swindle 
under the name of '' the right of taking " was 
carried on among the lords, who endeavoured 
to get men away from one another and thus 
flight became the great resort of the dissatis- 
fied peasant. 

In order to get those belonging to others, 
and to keep his own, the proprietor, when 
enfranchising the serfs, benevolently gave them 
land. Thus grew up the peasant landowner, 
the seigneur keeping only more or less limited 
rights, but those onerous enough when he 
chose to put on the screw. 

In this way much of the land belonging to the 
nobles and clergy became the patrimony of 
the plebeians, and remained so, for they were 
at first forbidden to sell their lands to noble- 
men or clergy. Then came other kinds of 
intermediary leases, something between the 
distribution of the land under the feudal 
system and its temporary occupancy of to- 
day through the payment of rent. Such were 



20 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

the '' domains " in Brittany, Anjou and else- 
where, held under the emphyteusis (long 
lease), which was really the right of sale, 
where the land, let out for an indefinite time 
and at a fixed rent, could be taken back by the 
landlord only on certain expensive terms. 
This was practically the death knell of feudal 
land tenure. Afterward came leases of fifty 
years, for life, or for '' three lifetimes," by 
which time the rights of the original noble 
owners had practically expired. 

Finally, all landowners found these systems 
disadvantageous. The landlord's share in the 
product of the soil (as a form of rent) con- 
tinually increased, while the condition of the 
farmer grew worse and worse. 

Since the Eevolution, the modern method of 
cultivation of land on a large scale constitutes 
an advance over anything previously con- 
ceived, just as the distribution of the land 
under the feudal regime constituted an advance 
over the system in vogue in earlier times. 

Times have changed in France since the 
days when the education of the masses was un- 
thought of. Then the cure or a monkish brother 
would get a few children together at in- 
determinate periods and teach them the 
catechism, a paternoster or a credo, and that 



Feudal France 21 

was about all. Writing, arithmetic — much 
less the teaching of grammar — were deemed 
entirely unnecessary to the growing youth. 
Then (and the writer has seen the same thing 
during his last dozen years of French travel) 
it was a common sight to see the sign 
'■'■ Ecrivain Publique " hanging over, or be- 
side, many a doorway in a large town. 

The Renaissance overflow from Italy left a 
great impress on the art and literature of 
France, and all its bright array of independent 
principalities. The troubadours and minstrels 
of still earlier days had given way to the 
efforts and industry of royalty itself. 
Frangois Premier, and, for aught we know, 
all his followers, penned verses, painted 
pictures, and patronized authors and artists, 
until the very soil itself breathed an art 
atmosphere. 

Marguerite de Valois (1492-1549), the sister 
of Frangois Premier, was called the tenth 
muse even before she became Queen of 
Navarre, and when she produced her 
Boccoccio-like stories, afterwards known as 
the " Heptameron of the Queen of Navarre," 
enthusiasm for letters among the noblesse knew 
no bounds. 

The spirit of romance which went out from 



22 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

the soft southland was tinged with a certain 
license and liberty which was wanting in the 
" Eomannt of the Rose " of Guillanme de 
Lorris, and like works, but it served to strike a 
passionate fire in the hearts of men which at 
least was bred of a noble sentiment. 

What the Eenaissance actually did for a 
French national architecture is a matter of 
doubt. But for its coming, France might have 
achieved a national scheme of building as an 
outgrowth of the Greek, Roman, and Saracen 
structures which had already been planted be- 
tween the Alps and the Pyrenees. The Gothic 
architecture of France comes nearer to being 
a national achievement than any other, but 
its application in its first form to a great 
extent was to ecclesiastical building. In 
domestic and civil architecture, and in walls 
and ramparts, there exists very good Gothic 
indeed in France, but of a heavier, less 
flowery style than that of its highest develop- 
ment in churchly edifices. 

The Romanesque, and even the pointed-arch 
architecture (which, be it remembered, need 
not necessarily be Gothic) of southern and 
mid-France, with the Moorish and Saracenic 
interpolations found in the Pyrenees, was the 
typical civic, military and domestic manner of 



Feudal France 23 

building before the era of the imitation of the 
debased Lombardic which came in the days of 
Charles VIII and Francois Premier. This 
variety spread swiftly all over France — and 
down the Rhine, and into England for that 
matter — and crowded out the sloping roof, 
the dainty colonnette and ribbed vaulting in 
favour of a heavier, but still ornate, barrel- 
vaulted and pillared, low-set edifice with most 
of the faults of the earlier Romanesque, and 
none of its excellences. 

The parts that architects and architecture 
played in the development of France were 
tremendous. Voltaire first promulgated this 
view, and his aphorisms are many; ** My 
fancy is to be an architect." " Mansard was 
one of the greatest architects known to 
France." '^ Architects were the ruin of Louis 
XIV." '' The Cathedral builders were sublime 
barbarians." Montesquieu was more senti- 
mental when he said : * ' Love is an architect 
who builds palaces on ruins if he pleases." 

The greatest architectural expression of a 
people has ever been in its Christian monu- 
ments, but references to the cathedrals, 
churches and chapels of the Pyrenean states 
have for the most part been regretfully omitted 
from these pages, giving place to fortresses, 



24 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

chateaux, great bridges, towers, donjons, and 
such public monuments as have a special pur- 
port in keeping with the preconceived limits 
of a volume which deals largely with the 
romance of feudal times. 

Generally speaking, the architectural monu- 
ments of these parts are little known by the 
mass of travellers, except perhaps Henri 
Quatre's ancestral chateau at Pau, the famous 
walls of Carcassonne, and perhaps Bayonne's 
bridges or the Eglise St. Saturnin and the 
bizarre cathedral of St. Etienne at Toulouse. 
All of these are excellent of their kind; indeed 
perhaps they are superlative in their class ; but 
when one mentions Perpignan's Castillet, the 
Chateau de Puylaurens, the arcaded Gothic 
houses of Agde, Beziers' fortress-cathedral, 
the fortress-church of St. Bertrand de Com- 
minges or a score of other tributary monu- 
mental relics, something hitherto unthought 
of is generally disclosed. 

Almost the whole range of architectural dis- 
play is seen here between the Mediterranean 
and the Gulf of Gascony, and any rambling 
itinerary laid out between the two seas will 
discover as many structural and decorative 
novelties as will be found in any similar 
length of roadway in France. 




JJ'^aich-toiver in the Val d'Andorre 



Feudal France 25 

Leaving the purely ecclesiastical edifices — 
cathedrals and great churches — out of the 
question, the entire Midi of France, and the 
French slopes and valleys of the Pyrenees in 
particular, abounds in architectural curiosities 
which are marvels to the student and lover of 
art. 

There are chateaux, chastels and chastillons, 
one differing from another by subtle dis- 
tinctions which only the expert can note. Then 
there are such feudal accessories as watch- 
towers, donjons and clochers, and great fortify- 
ing walls and gates and barbicans, and even 
entire fortified towns like Carcassonne and La 
Bastide. Surely the feudality, or rather its 
relics, cannot be better studied than here, — 
'' where the people held the longest aloof from 
the Crown." 

The watch-towers which flank many of the 
valleys of the Pyrenees are a great curiosity 
and quandary to archaeologists and historians. 
Formerly they flashed the news of wars or 
invasions from one outpost to another, much 
as does wireless telegraphy of to-day. Of 
these watch-towers, or tours telegrapMques, 
as the modern French historians call them, 
that of Castel-Biel, near Luchon, is the most 
famous. It rises on the peak of a tiny moun- 



26 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

tain in the valley of the Pique and is a square 
structure of perhaps a dozen or fifteen feet 
on each side. Sixteen feet or so from the 
ground, on the northwest fagade, is an opening 
leading to the first floor. This tower is typical 
of its class, and is the most accessible to the 
hurried traveller. 

The feudal history of France is most inter- 
esting to recall in this late day when every 
man is for himself. Not all was oppression by 
any means, and the peasant landowner — as 
distinct from the vilain and serf — was a real 
person, and not a supposition, even before the 
Revolution; though Thomas Carlyle on his 
furzy Scotch moor didn't Imow it. 

Feudal France consisted of seventy thou- 
sand fiefs or rere-fiefs, of which three thou- 
sand gave their names to their seigneurs. All 
seigneurs who possessed three chdtellenies and 
a walled hamlet {ville close) had the right of 
administering justice without reference to a 
higher court. There were something more 
than seven thousand of these villes closes, 
within which, or on the lands belonging to the 
seigneurs thereof, were one million eight 
hundred and seventy-two thousand monuments, 
— churches, monasteries, abbeys, chateaux, 
castles, and royal or episcopal palaces. It 



Feudal France 27 

was thus that religious, civic and military 
architecture grew side by side and, when new 
styles and modifications came in, certain inter- 
polations were forthwith incorporated in the 
more ancient fabrics, giving that melange of 
picturesque walls and roofs which makes 
France the best of all lands in which to study 
the architecture of mediaevalism. Among these 
mediaeval relics were interspersed others more 
ancient, — Roman and Greek basilicas, temples, 
baths, arenas, amphitheatres and aqueducts 
in great profusion, whose remains to-day are 
considerably more than mere fragments. 

The hereditary aristocracy of France, the 
rulers and the noblesse of the smaller king- 
doms, dukedoms and countships, were great 
builders, as befitted their state, and, being 
mostly great travellers and persons of wealth, 
they really surrounded themselves with many 
exotic forms of luxury which a more isolated 
or exclusive race would never have acquired. 
There is no possible doubt whatever but that 
it is the very mixture of styles and types that 
make the architecture of France so profoundly 
interesting even though one decries the fact 
that it is not national. 

One well recognized fact concerning France 
can hardly fail to be reiterated by any who 



28 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

write of the manners and cnstoms and the arts 
of mediaeval times, and that is that the figures 
of population of those days bear quite similar 
resemblances to those of to-day. Historians 
of a hundred years back, even, estimated the 
total population of France in the fifteenth 
century as being very nearly the same as at the 
Eevolution, — perhaps thirty millions. To-day 
eight or perhaps ten millions more may be 
counted, but the increase is invariably in the 
great cities, Paris, Lyons, Marseilles, Bor- 
deaux, Eouen, etc. Oloron and Orthez in 
Beam, Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port in Navarre, 
or Agde or Elne in Roussillon, remain at the 
same figure at which they have stood for cen- 
turies, unless, as is more often the case, they 
have actually fallen off in numbers. And still 
France is abnormally prosperous, collectively 
and individually, so far as old-world nations 
go. 

Originally the nobility in France was of four 
degrees : the noblesse of the blood royal, the 
Jiaute-nohlesse, the noblesse ordinaire and the 
noblesse who were made noble by patent of the 
ruling prince. All of these distinctions were 
hereditary, save, in some instances, the 
noblesse ordinaire. 

In the height of feudal glory there were 



Feudal France 29 

accredited over four thousand families be- 
longing to the ancienne noblesse, and ninety 
thousand families nobles (descendant branches 
of the above houses) who could furnish a hun- 
dred thousand knightly combatants for any 
'' little war " that might be promulgated. 

Sometimes the family nanxe was noble and 
could be handed down, and sometimes not. 
Sometimes, too, inheritance was through the 
mother, not the father; this was known as the 
noblesse du ventre. A foreign noble natural- 
ized in France remained noble, and retained 
his highest title of right. 

The French nobles most often took their 
titles from their fiefs, and these, with the ex- 
ception of baronies and marquisats, were 
usually of Roman origin. The chief titles be- 
low the noblesse du sang royal were dues, 
barons, marquis, comtes, vicomtes, vidames, 
and chevaliers and each had their special 
armorial distinctions, some exceedingly simple, 
and some so elaborate with quarterings and 
blazonings as to be indefinable by any but a 
heraldic expert. 

The coats of arms of feudal France, or 
armoiries, as the French call them (a much 
better form of expression by the way), are a 
most interesting subject of study. Some of 



30 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

these armoiries are really beautiful, some 
quaint and some enigmatic, as for instance 
those of the King of Navarre. 

The Revolutionary Assembly abolished such 
things in France, but Napoleon restored them 
all again, and created a new noblesse as well: 

" Aussitot maint esprit fecond en reveries, 
" Inventa le Mason avec les armoiries." 

sang the poet Boileau. 

Primarily armoiries were royal bequests, but 
in these days a pork-packer, an iron-founder 
or a cheese-maker concocts a trade-mark on 
heraldic lines and the thing has fallen flat. 
Fancy a pig sitting on a barrel top and flanked 
by two ears of corn, or a pyramid of cheeses 
overtopped by the motto " A full stomach 
maketh good health." Why it's almost as 
ridiculous as a crossed pick-axe, a shovel and 
a crow-bar would be for a navvy on a railway 
line! In the old days it was not often thus, 
though a similar ridiculous thing, which no 
one seemed to take the trouble to suppress, 
was found in the '' Armoiries des gueux." 
One of these showed two twists of tobacco 
en croix, with the following motto: " Dieu vous 
henisse! '' 



Feudal France 31 

At the head of the list of French armoiries 
were those of domain or souverainete. 

Then followed several other distinct classes. 
" Armoiries de Pretention," where the pa- 
tronal rights over a city or a province were 
given the holders, even though the province 
was under the chief domination of a more 
powerful noble. 

" Armoiries de Concession," given for serv- 
ices by a sovereign prince — such as the 
armoiries belonging to Jeanne d'Arc. 

'' Armoiries de Patronage," in reality quar- 
terings added to an armoirie already existing. 
These were frequently additions to the blazon- 
ings of families or cities. Paris took on the 
arms of the King of France, the insistent Louis, 
by this right. 

'' Armoiries de Dignite," showing the 
distinction or dignities with which a person 
was endowed, and which were added to exist- 
ing family arms. 

" Armoiries de Famille," as their name indi- 
cates, distinguishing one noble family from 
another. This class was further divided into 
three others, " Substituees," " Succession," or 
'' Alliance," terms which explain themselves. 

'^ Armoiries de Convmunaute," distinctions 



32 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

given to noble chapters of military bodies, 
corporations, societies and the like. 

Finally there was a class which belonged to 
warriors alone. 

At all times illustrious soldiers adopted a 
devise, or symbol, which they caused to be 
painted on their shields. These were only con- 
sidered as armoiries when they were inherited 
by one who had followed in the footsteps of his 
ancestors. This usage dates from the end of 
the ninth century, and it is from this period 
that armoiries, properly called, came into 
being. 




Feudal Flags a nd Banners 

The banners of the feudal sovereigns were, 
many of them, very splendid affairs, often 
bearing all their arms and quarterings. They 
were borne wherever their owners went, — in 



Feudal France 33 

war, to the capital, and at their country houses. 
At all ceremonious functions the banners were 
ever near the persons of their sovereigns as a 
sign of suzerainty. The owner of a banner 
would often have it cut out of metal and placed 
on the gables of his house as a weather-vane, a 
custom which, in its adapted form, has endured 
through the ages to this day. In tournaments, 
the nobles had their banners attached to their 
lances, and made therewith always the sign 
of the cross before commencing their passes. 
Also their banners or banderoles were hung 
from the trumpets of the heralds of their 
house. 

Another variety of feudal standard, differing 
from either the hanniere or the pennon, was 
the gonfanon. This was borne only by 
hacheliers, vassals of an overlord. 

" N't a riche horn ni baron 

" Qui n'ait les lui son gonfanon." 

The feudal banner, the house flag of the 
feudal seigneurs, and borne by them in battle, 
was less splendid than the hanniere royale, 
which was hung from a window balcony to 
mark a kingly lodging-place. It was in fact 
only a small square of stuff hanging from a 
transversal baton. This distinguished, in 



34 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

France, a certain grade of knights known as 
chevaliers-bannerets. These chevaliers had the 
privilege of exercising certain rights that other 
knights did not possess. 

To be created chevalier-banneret one had to 
be twenty-one years of age. If a chevalier was 
already a bachelier, a grade inferior to that 
of a banneret, to become a full blown chevalier 
he had only to cut the points from his standard 
— a pennon — when it and he became a ban- 
neret; that is to say, he had the right to carry 
a banner, or to possess a fief de banniere. 

There were three classes of fiefs in feudal 
France. First; the fief de banniere, which 
could furnish twenty-five combatants under a 
banner or flag of their own. Second; the fief 
de haubert, which could furnish a well-mounted 
horseman fully armed, accompanied by two or 
three varlets or valets. Third; the fief de 
simple ecuyer, whose sole offering was a single 
vassal, lightly armed. 

There was, too, a class of nobles without 
estates. They were known as seigneurs of a 
fief en Vair, or a fief volant, much like many 
courtesy titles so freely handed around to-day 
in some monarchies. 

A vassal was a dweller in a fief under the 



Feudal France 35 

control of the seigneur. The word comes from 
the ancient Frankish gessell. 

The chevaliers, not the highest of noble 
ranks, but a fine title of distinction neverthe- 
less, bore one of four prefixes, don, sire, 
messire, or monseigneur. They could eat at the 
same table with the monarch, and they alone 
had the right to bear a banner-lance in war- 
fare, or wear a double coat of mail. 

In 1481, Louis XI began to abolish the bow 
and the lance in France, in so far as they 
applied to effective warfare. The first fire- 
arms had already appeared a century before, 
and though the coulevrines and canons a main 
were hardly efficient weapons, when compared 
with those of to-day, they were far more effect- 
ive than the bow and arrow at a distance, or 
the javelin, the pike and the lance near at 
hand. Then developed the arquehuse, literally 
a hand-cannon, clumsy and none too sure of 
aim, but a fearful death-dealer if it happened 
to hit. 

The feudal lords, the seigneurs and other 
nobles, had the right of levying taxes upon 
their followers. These taxes, or impots, took 
varying forms ; such as the obligation to grind 
their corn at the mills of the seigneur, paying 
a heavy proportion of the product therefor; 



36 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

to press their grapes at his wine-press, and 
bake their bread in his ovens. At Montauban, 
in the G-aronne, one of these old seigneurial 
flour mills may still be seen. The seigneurs 
were not ostensibly '' in trade," but their con- 
trol of the little affairs of the butcher, the 
baker, and the candlestick-maker virtually made 
them so. 

More definite taxes — demanded in cash when 
the peasants could pay, otherwise in kind — 
were the seigneurial taxes on fires ; on the right 
of trade (the sale of wine, bread or meat) ; 
the vingtaine, whereby the peasant gave up a 
twentieth of his produce to the seigneur; and 
such oddities as a tax on the first kiss of the 
newly married; bardage, a sort of turnpike 
road duty for the privilege of singing certain 
songs; and on all manner of foolish fancies. 

After the taxation by the seigneurs there 
came that by the clerics, who claimed their 
" ecclesiastical tenth," a tax which was levied 
in France just previous to the Revolution with 
more severity, even, than in Italy. 

Finally the people rose, and the French 
peasants delivered themselves all over the land 
to a riot of evil, as much an unlicensed 
tyranny as was the oppression of their feudal 
lords. One may thus realize the means which 



Feudal France 37 

planted feudal France with great fortresses, 
chateaux and country houses, and the motives 
which caused their destruction to so large an 
extent. 

It was the tyranny of the master and the 
cruelty of the servant that finally culminated 
in the Kevolution. Not only the petty 
seigneurs had been the oppressors, but the 
Crown, represented by the figurehead of the 
Bourbon king in liis capital, put the pressure 
on the peasant folk still harder by releasing it 
on the nobles. The tax on the people, that 
great, vague, non-moving mass of the popula- 
tion, has ever produced the greatest revenue 
in France, as, presumably, it has elsewhere. 
In the days before the Revolution it was le 
peuple who paid, and it was the people who 
paid the enormous Franco-German war in- 
demnity in 1871. 

The feudality in France, in its oppressive 
sense, died long years before the Revolution, 
but the aristocracy still lives in spite of the 
efforts of the Assembly to crush it — the As- 
sembly and the mob who sang : 

" Ah ! ga ira, pa ira, pa ira, 
Les aristocrates a la lanterne ! 
Ah ! <;a ira, fa ira, pa ira, 
Les aristocrates on les pendra !" 



38 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

And the French noblesse of to-day, the proud 
old French aristocracy, is not, on the whole, 
as bad as it has frequently been painted. 
They may, in the majority, be royalists, may 
be even Bonapartists, or Orleanists, instead of 
republicans, but surely there's no harm in 
that in these days when certain political parties 
look upon socialists as anarchists and free- 
traders as communists. 

The honour, power and profit derived by the 
noblesse in France all stopped with the Eevolu- 
tion. The National Assembly, however, re- 
fused to abolish titles. To do that body justice 
they saw full well that they could not take 
away that which did not exist as a tangible 
entity, and it is to their credit that they did not 
establish the new order of Knights of the 
Plough as they were petitioned to do. This 
would have been as fatal a step as can possibly 
be conceived, though for that matter a plough 
might just as well be a symbol of knighthood 
as a thistle, a jaratelle, a gold stick or a black 
rod. 

In France a whole seigneurie was slave to 
the seigneur. Under feudal rule the clergy 
(not the humble abbes and cures, but the 
bishops and archbishops) were frequently 
themselves overlords. They, at any rate, en- 



Feudal France 39 

joyed as high pi-ivileges as any in the land, 
and if the Revolution benefited the lower 
clergy it robbed the higher churchmen. 

Just previous to the Revolution, the clergy 
had a revenue of one hundred and thirty mil- 
lion livres of which only forty-two million five 
hundred thousand livres accrued to the cures. 
The difference represents the loss to the 
" Seigneurs of the Church." 

With the Revolution the whole kingdom was 
in a blaze; famished mobs clamoured, if not 
always for bread, at least for an anticipated 
vengeance, and when they didn't actually kill 
they robbed and burned. This accounts for 
the comparative infrequency of the feudal 
chateaux in France in anything but a ruined 
state. Sometimes it is but a square of wall 
that remains, sometimes a mere gateway, some- 
times a donjon, and sometimes only a soli- 
tary tower. All these evidences are frequent 
enough in the provinces of the Pyrenees, from 
the more or less complete Chateaux of Foix 
and of Pau, to the ruins of Lourdes and 
Lourdat, and the more fragmentary remains of 
Ultrera, Ruscino and Coarraze. 

The mediaeval country house was a chateau; 
when it was protected by walls and moats it 



40 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

became a castle or chateau-fort; a distinction 
to be remarked. 

The chateau of the middle ages was not only 
the successor of the Eoman stronghold, but it 
was a villa or place of residence as well ; when 
it was fortified it was a chastel. 

A castle might be habitable, and a chateau 
might be a species of stronghold, and thus the 
mediaeval country house might be either one 
thing or the other, but still the distinction will 
always be apparent if one will only go deeply 
enough into the history of any particular struc- 
ture. 

Light and air, which implies frequent 
windows, have always been desirable in all 
habitations of man, and only when the 
chateau bore the aspects of a fortification 
were window openings omitted. If it was an 
island castle, a moat-surrounded chateau, — 
as it frequently was in later Renaissance times, 
— windows and doors existed in profusion; 
but if it were a feudal fortress, such as one 
most frequently sees in the Pyrenees, openings 
at, or near, the ground-level were few and far 
between. Such windows as existed were mere 
narrow slits, like loop-holes, and the entrance 
doorway was really a fortified gate or port. 



Feudal France 41 

frequently with a portcullis and sometimes 
with a pont-levis. 

The origin of the word chateau (castrum, 
castellum, castle) often served arbitrarily to 
designate a fortified habitation of a seigneur, 
or a citadel which protected a town. One must 
know something of their individual histories in 
order to place them correctly. In the fifteenth 
and sixteenth centuries, chateaux in France 
multiplied almost to infinity, and became 
habitations in fact. 

In reality the middle ages saw two classes 
of great chateaux go up almost side by side, 
the feudal chateau of the tenth to the fifteenth 
centuries, and the frankly residential country 
houses of the Renaissance period which came 
after. 

For the real, true history of the feudal 
chateaux of France, one cannot do better than 
follow the hundred and fifty odd pages which 
Viollet-le-Duc devoted to the subject in his 
monumental " Dictionnaire Raisonee d' Archi- 
tecture." 

In the Midi, all the way from the Italian to 
the Spanish frontiers, are found the best ex- 
amples of the feudal chateaux, mere ruins 
though they be in many cases. In the extreme 
north of Normandy, at Les Andelys, Arques 



42 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

and Falaise, at Pierrefonds and Coney, these 
military chateaux stand prominent too, but 
mid-France, in the valley of the Loire, in 
Touraine especially, is the home of the great 
Renaissance country house. 

The royal chateaux, the city dwellings and 
the country houses of the kings have perhaps 
the most interest for the traveller. Of this 
class are Chenonceaux and Amboise, Fontaine- 
bleau and St. Grermain, and, . within the scope 
of this book, the paternal chateau of Henri 
Quatre at Pan. 

It is not alone, however, these royal resi- 
dences that have the power to hold one's at- 
tention. There are others as great, as beautiful 
and as replete with historic events. In this 
class are the chateaux at Foix, at Carcassonne, 
at Lourdes, at Coarraze and a dozen other 
points in the Pyrenees, whose architectural 
splendours are often neglected for the routine 
sightseeing sanctioned and demanded by the 
conventional tourists. 

There are no vestiges of rural habitations in 
France erected by the kings of either of the 
first two races, though it is known that Chil- 
peric and Clotaire II had residences at Chelles, 
Compiegne, Nogent, Villers-Cotterets, and 
Creil, north of Paris. 



Feudal France 43 

The pre-eminent builder of the great fortress 
chateaux of other days was Foulques Nerra, 
and his influence went wide and far. These 
establishments were useful and necessary, but 
they were hardly more than prison-like strong- 
holds, quite bare of the luxuries which a later 
generation came to regard as necessities. 

The refinements came in with Louis IX. 
The artisans and craftsmen became more and 
more ingenious and artistic, and the fine tastes 
and instincts of the French with respect to 
architecture soon came to find their equal ex- 
pression in furnishings and fitments. Hard, 
high seats and beds, which looked as though 
they had been brought from Kome in Caesar's 
time, gave way to more comfortable chairs and 
canopied beds, carpets were laid down where 
rushes were strewn before, and walls were 
hung with cloths and draperies where grim 
stone and plaster had previously sent a chill 
down the backs of lords and ladies. Thus 
developed the life in French chateaux from one 
of simple security and defence, to one of luxuri- 
ous ease and appointments. 

The sole medium of communication between 
many of the French provinces, at least so far 
as the masses were concerned, was the local 



/ 



44 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

patois. All who did not speak it were 
foreigners, just as are English, Americans or 
Germans of to-day. The peoples of the 
Eomance tongue stood in closer relation, per- 
haps, than other of the provincials of old, and 
the men of the Midi, whether they were Gas- 
cons from the valley of the Garonne, or 
Proven§aiix from the Bouches-du-Rhone were 
against the king and government as a com- 
mon enemy. 

The feudal lords were a gallant race on the 
whole; they didn't spend all their time making- 
war; they played houles and the jen-de-paume, 
and held court at their chateau, where min- 
strels sang, and knights made verses for their 
lady loves, and men and women amused them- 
selves much as country-house folk do to-day. 

The following, extracted from the book of 
accounts of one of the minor noblesse of Beam 
in the sixteenth century, is intimate and inter- 
esting. The master of this feudal household 
had a system of bookkeeping which modern 
chatelains might adopt with advantage. The 
items are curiously disposed. 





Francs Sous Deniers 


Pot de vinalgre 


5 


Livre de I'huile d'olive 


6 


Sac du sel 


30 


Aux pauvre 


30 



Feudal France 



45 



En 
Voyage' 



f Pour deux laquais et la mulette 
Au valet pour boire 
A Tarbes pour la couch6e de lundi 
Un relev6 pour la mulette 
Un fer pour la mulette 
Aux nomades 



Francs Sous Deniers 




18 




1 


i 4 


10 


8 


2 6 




5 


1 


10 



Evidently " la mulette " was a very neces- 
sary adjunct and required quite as much as its 
master. 



CHAPTER III 

THE PYRENEES — THEIR GEOGRAPHY AND TOPOG- 
RAPHY 

One of the great joys of the traveller is the 
placid contemplation of his momentary environ- 
ment. The visitor to Biarritz, Pan, Luchon, 
Foix or Carcassonne has ever before his eyes 
the massive Pyrenean bulwark between France 
and Spain; and the mere existence of this 
natural line of defence accounts to no small 
extent for the conditions of life, the style of 
building, and even the manners of the men who 
live within its shadow. 

The Pyrenees have ever formed an un- 
disputed frontier boundary line, though king- 
doms and dukedoms, buried within its fast- 
nesses or lying snugly enfolded in its gentle 
valleys, have fluctuated and changed owners so 
often that it is difficult for most people to 
define the limits of French .and Spanish 
Navarre or the country of the French and 
Spanish Basques. It is still more difficult when 
it comes to locating the little Pyrenean re- 

46 



The Pyrenees — Their Geography 47 

public of Andorra, that tiniest of nations, a 
little sister of San Marino and Monaco. Some 
day the histories of these three miniature 
European " powers " (sic) should be made 
into a book. It would be most interesting 
reading and a novelty. 

Unlike the Alps, the Pyrenees lack a certain 
impressive grandeur, but they are more varied 
in their outline, and form a continuous chain 
from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean, while 
their gently sloping green valleys smile more 
sweetly than anything of the kind in Switzer- 
land or Savoie. 

They possess character, of a certain grim 
kind to be sure, particularly in their higher 
passes, and a general air of sterility, which, 
however, is less apparent as one descends to 
lower levels. The very name of Pyrenees 
comes probably from the word hiren, meaning 
^' high pastures," so this refutes the belief 
that they are not abundantly endowed with this 
form of nature's wealth. 

From east to west the chain of the Pyrenees 
has a length of four hundred and fifty 
kilometres, or, following the detours of the 
crests of the Hispano-Frangais frontier, per- 
haps six hundred. Between Pau and Hnesca 
their width, counting from one lowland plain to 



48 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

another, is a trifle over a hundred and twenty 
kilometres, the slope being the most rapid on 
the northern, or French, side. The Pyrenees 
are less thickly wooded than the Savoian Alps, 
and there is very much less perpetual snow 
and fewer glaciers. 

In reality they are broken into two distinct 
parts by the Val d'Aran, forming the 
Pyrenees-Orientales and the Pyrenees-Occi- 
dentales. Of the detached mountain masses, 
the chief is the Canigou, lying almost by the 
Mediterranean shore, and a little northward of 
the main chain. Its highest peak is the 
Puigmal {puig or puy being the Languedo§ian 
word for peak), rising to nearly three thousand 
metres. 

For long the Canigou was supposed to 
be the loftiest peak of the Pyrenees, but 
the Pic du Midi exceeds it by a hundred 
metres. However, this well proportioned, 
isolated mass looks more pretentious than it 
really is, standing, as it does, quite away from 
the main chain. From its peak Marseilles 
can be seen — by a Marseillais, who will also 
fancy that he can hear the turmoil of the 
Cannebiere and detect the odour of the saffron 
in his beloved bouillabaise. At any rate one 
can certainly see as much of the earth's sur- 



The Pyrenees — Their Geography 49 




t?> 



50 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

face spread out before him here as from any 
other spot of which he has recollection. 

The Pyrenees-Occidentales abound in more 
numerous and better defined moimtains than 
the more easterly portion. Here are the 
famous Monts Maudits, with the Pic ,de 
Nethou, the highest of the Pyrenees (three 
thousand four hundred and four metres), 
with a summit plateau or belvedere perhaps 
twenty metres in length by five in width. 

The Vignemal (three thousand two hundred 
and ninety-eight metres) is the highest peak 
wholly on French soil and dominates the 
famous col, or pass, known as the Breche de 
Roland. 

The Pic du Midi, back of Bigorre, is justly 
the best known of all the crests of the 
Pyrenees. Its height is two thousand eight 
hundred and seventy-seven metres, and it is 
worthy of a special study, and a book all to 
itself. The observatory recently established 
here is one of the chefs-d'oeuvre of science. 
The astronomical, climatological and geogra- 
phical importance of this prominent peak was 
already marked out on the maps of the 
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and its 
glory has been often sung in verse by Guil- 
laume Saluste, Sire du Bartas, gentilhomme 




Breclie de Roland 



The Pyrenees — Their Geography 51 

Gascon ; and by Bernard Palissy, better known 
as a potter than as a poet. 

Towards the Gulf of Gascony the Pyrenees 
send oat their ramifications in much gentler 
slopes than on the Mediterranean side. Forests 
and pastures are more profuse and luxuriant, 
but the peaks are still of granite, as they 
mostly are throughout the range. Grouped 
along the flanks of the river Bidassoa this 
section of the chain is known to geographers as 
the ** Montagues du pays Basque." 

At the foot of these Basque Mountains 
passes the lowest level route between France 
and Spain, — that followed by the railway and 
the ** Route Internationale, Paris-Madrid." 

This easy and commodious passage of the 
Pyrenees has ever been the theatre of the chief 
struggles between the peoples of the Spanish 
peninsula and France. At Rongevaux the rear- 
guard of the army of Charlemagne — ' ' his 
paladins and peers ' ' — were destroyed in 778, 
and it was here that the French and Spanish 
fought in 1794 and 1813. 

The French slopes of the Pyrenees belong 
almost wholly to the basin or watershed of the 
Garonne, one of the four great waterways of 
France, the other three being the Loire, the 
Seine and the Rhone. In the upper valley of 



52 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

the Garonne is the Plateau de Lannemazan. 
It lies in reality between the Garonne and the 
Adour. The Adour on the west and the Tech 
on the east, with their tributaries, play an 
important part in draining off the waters 
from the mountain sources, but they are 
entirely overshadowed by the Garonne, which, 
rising in Spain, in the Val d'Aran, flows six 
hundred and five kilometres before reaching 
salt water below Bordeaux, through its 
estuary the Gironde. Nearly five hundred 
kilometres of this length are navigable, and 
the economic value of this river to Agen, 
Montauban and Toulouse is very great. 

Between the Adour and the Gironde lies that 
weird morass-like region of the Landes, once 
peopled only by sheep-herders on stilts and by 
charcoal-burners, but now producing a quantity 
of resin and pine which is making the whole 
region prosperous and content. 

The source of the Garonne is at an altitude 
of nearly two thousand metres, and is virtually 
a cascade. Another tiny source, known as the 
Garonne-Oriental, swells the flood of the parent 
stream by flowing into it just below St. Gau- 
dens, the nearest " big town " of France to the 
Spanish frontier. 

The Ariege is the only really important 



The Pyrenees — Their G-eography 53 

tributary entering the Garonne from the region 
of the Pyrenees. Its length is a hundred and 
fifty-seven kilometres, and its source is on the 
Pic Negre, at an altitude of two thousand 
metres, three kilometres from the frontier, 
but on French soil. It waters two important 
cities of the Comte de Foix, the capital Foix 
and Pamiers. 

On the west, the chain of the Pyrenees slopes 
gently down to the great bight, known so sadly 
to travellers by sea as the Bay of Biscay. 
From the mouth of the Gironde southward it is 
further designated as the Golfe de Gascogne. 
There is no perceptible indentation of the 
coast line to indicate this, but its waters bathe 
the sand dunes of the Landes, the Basque 
coasts, and the extreme northeastern boundary 
of Spain. 

The shore-line is straight, uniformly monot- 
onous and inhospitable, the great waves which 
roll in from the Atlantic beating up a soapy 
surf and long dikes of sand in weird, unlovely 
contours. For two hundred and forty kilome- 
tres, all along the shore-line of the Gironde and 
the Landes, this is applicable, the only relief 
being the basin of Archachon (Bordeaux' own 
special watering-place), the port of Bayonne, 
— at the mouth of the Adour, — the delightful 



54 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

rocky picturesqueness inunediately around 
Biarritz, and Saint-Jean-de-Luz and its har- 
bour, and the estuary of the Bidassoa, that 
epoch-making river which, with the crest of the 
Pyrenees, marks the Franco-Espagnol fron- 
tier. 

The French coast line at the easterly ter- 
mination of the Pyrenees possesses an entirely 
different aspect from that of the west. Practi- 
cally there is no tide in the Mediterranean, 
and the gateway between France and Spain 
through the eastern Pyrenees is less gracious 
than that on the west. The Pyrenees-Ori- 
entales come plump down to the blue waters 
of the great inland sea just north of Cap 
Creus with little or no intimation of a slope. 

The frontier commences at Cap Cerbere, 
and at Port Vendres (the Portus-Veneris of 
the ancients) one finds one of the principal 
Mediterranean sea ports of France, and the 
nearest to the great French possessions in 
Africa. 

On Cap Creus in Spain, and on Cap Bear in 
France, at an elevation of something over two 
hundred metres, are two remarkable light- 
houses whose rays carry a distance of over 
forty kilometres seaward. 

The etangs, Saint Nazaire and Leucate, cut 



The Pyrenees — Their Geography 55 

the coast line here, and three tiny rivers, whose 
sources are high up in the mountain valleys of 
the Tech, the Tet and the Aglay, flow into the 
sea before Cap Leucate, the boundary between 
old Languedoc and the Comte de Roussillon. 

Off-shore is the tempestuous Golfe des Lions, 
where the lion banners of the Arlesien ships 
floated in days gone by. The Aude, the Orb 
and the Herault mingle their waters with the 
Mediterranean here, and on the Montagne 
d'Agde rises another of those remarkable 
French lighthouses, this one throwing its light 
a matter of forty-five kilometres seawards. 

With Perpignan, Narbonne, Beziers and 
Agde behind, one draws slowly out from under 
the shadow of the Pyrenees until the soil 
flattens out into a powdery, dusty plain, with 
here and there a pond, or great bay, of soft, 
brackish water, whose principal value lies in its 
fecundity at producing mosquitoes. 

Aigues-Mortes cradles itself on the shores of 
one of these great inlets of the Mediterranean, 
and Saintes Maries on another. Little gulfs, 
canals, dwarf seaside pines, cypresses, olive 
trees and vineyards are the chief character- 
istics of the landscape, while inland the surface 
of the soil rolls away in gentle billows towards 



56 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

Nimes, Montpellier and St. Giles, with the flat 
plain of the Camargue lying between. 

Since the Christian era began, it is assumed 
that this coast line between the Pyrenees and 
the Ehone has advanced a matter of fourteen 
kilometres seaward, and since Aigues-Mortes, 
which now lies far inland, is known to be the 
port from which the sainted Louis set out on 
his Crusade, there is no gainsaying the state- 
ment. The immediate region surrounding 
Aigues-Mortes is a most fascinating one to 
visit, but would be a terrible place in which to 
be obliged to spend a life-time. 

Between Roussillon and Spain there are 
fifteen passes by which one may cross the 
chain of the Pyrenees, though indeed two only 
are practicable for wheeled traffic. 

The Col de Perthus is the chief one, and is 
traversed by the ancient "Eoute Royale" from 
Paris to Barcelona. There is a town by the 
same name, with a population of five hundred 
and a really good hotel. It's worth making 
the journey here just to see how a dull French 
village can sleep its time away. The passage 
is defended by the fine Fortress de Bellegarde. 
It was on the Col de Perthus that Pompey 
erected the famous " trophy," surmounted by 
his statue bearing the following legend : 



The Pyrenees — Their Geography 57 



FROM THE ALPS TO THE ULTERIOR EX- 
TREMITY OF SPAIN, POMPEY HAS FORCED 
SUBMISSION TO THE ROMAN REPUBLIC 
FROM EIGHT HUNDRED AND SEVENTY -SIX 
CITIES AND TOWNS. 



Twenty years after, Caesar erected another 
tablet beside the former. No trace of either 




remains to-day, and there are only frontier 
boundary stones marking the territorial limits 
of France and Spain, which replace those 
torn down in the Revolution. 

Proceeding by the coast line, a difficult road 



58 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

into Spain lies by the Col de Banyuls, just 
where the Pyrenees plunge beneath the 
Mediterranean, a mere shelf of a road. 

The cirques, or great amphitheatres of 
mountains, are a characteristic of the Pyrenees, 
and the Cirque de Gavarnie is the king of them 
all. It represents, very nearly, a sheer per- 
pendicular wall rising to a height of five hun- 
dred metres, and three thousand five hundred 
metres in circumference. Perpetual snow is an 
accompaniment of some of its gorges and 
neighbouring peaks, and twelve cascades 
tumble down its rock walls at various points. 
There is nothing quite so impressive in the 
world — outside Yosemite or the Yellowstone. 

Gavarnie, its cirque and its village, is the 
natural wonder of the Pyrenees, Said Victor 
Hugo: ''Grand nom, petit village." To 
explore the Cirque de Gavarnie is a passion 
with many; when you get in this state of mind 
you become what the touring Frenchman 
knows as a '' gavarniste," as an Alpine 
climber becomes an " alpiniste." 

As for the climate of the Pyrenees, it is, for 
a mountain region, soft and mild; not so mild 
as that of the French Eiviera perhaps, nor of 
Barcelona, nor San Sebastian in Spain, but on 
the whole not cold, and certainly more humid 



The Pyrenees — Their Geography 59 

than in the Alpes-Maritimes, on the Cote 
d'Azur. 

Generally blowing from the northwest in 
winter, the wind accumulates great masses of 
cloud in the bight of the Golfe de Gascogne 
and sweeps them up against the barrier of the 
Pyrenees, there to be held in suspension until 
an exceedingly stiff wind blows them away or 
the sun bums them off. The French Riviera 
is cursed with the mistral, but it has the bless- 
ing of almost continual sunshine, while in the 
Pyrenees-Occidentales the wind is less strong 
as it comes only from the sea in the northwest, 
instead of from the north by the Rhone valley, 
and the " disagreeable months " (November, 
December and January) often bring damp and 
humid, if not frigidly cold weather with them. 

The rainfall is often as much as eight deci- 
metres per annum in the Landes, one metre in 
the Pyrenees proper, and a metre and a half in 
the Basque country. The average rainfall for 
France is approximately eight decimetres, per- 
haps thirty- two inches. 

In the Pyrenees the temperature is, nor- 
mally, neither very hot nor very cold. Perpi- 
gnan is the warmest in winter. Its average is 
15° Centigrade (59° F.), about that of Nice, 
whilst that for France is 6° Centigrade (43° F.). 



60 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

The climate of the Pyrenees comes within 
the climat Girondin, and the average for the 
year is 13° Centigrade. The dimat-maritime 
is a further division, and is considerably more 
elevated in degree. This comes from the 
western and northwestern winds off the sea, 
which, it may be remarked, almost invariably 
bring rain with them. At Montanban the 
saying is: '' Montagne claire, Bordeaux ob- 
scure, pluie a coup sur." In G^ascogne: 
'' Jamais pluie au print emps ne passe pour 
mauvais temps." At Bordeaux the average 
summer temperature is but 29° Centigrade, at 
Toulouse 21.5° Centigrade and Pau about the 
same, with a winter temperature often 4° or 
5° below zero Centigrade. 

The general aspect of the region of the 
Pyrenees is one of the most varied and 
agreeable in all southern France. There is a 
grandeur and natural character about it that 
has not fallen before the march of twentieth 
century progress, save in the " resorts," such 
as Biarritz or Pau; and yet the primitiveness 
and savagery is not so uncomfortable as to 
make the traveller long for the super-civiliza- 
tion of great capitals. It is virgin in its beauty 
and varied wildness, and yet it is a soft, 
pleasant land where even the winter snows of 



The Pyrenees — Their Geography 61 

the mountains seem less rigorous than the 
snow and cold of Savoie or Switzerland. On 
one side is the great bulwark of the Pyrenees, 
and on two others the dazzling waters of the 
ocean, while to the north the valley of the 
Garonne, west of the Cevennes, is not at all a 
frigid, austere, frost-bound region, save only 
in the very coldest '' snaps." 

The ranges of foothills in the Pyrenees 
divide the surface of the land into slopes and 
valleys every bit as charming as those of 
Switzerland, and yet oh! so different! And 
the fresh, limpid rivulets and rivers are real 
rivers, and not mere trickling brooks, whose 
colouring and transparency are the marvel of 
all who view. The majesty of the sea on 
either side, and of the mountains between, 
makes the very aspect of life luxurious and less 
hard than that in the more northerly Alpine 
climes, and above all the outlook on life is 
French, and not that money-grabbing Anglo- 
German-Swiss commercialism which the gen- 
uine traveller abhors. He sees less of that sort 
of thing here in the Pyrenees, even at Pau 
and Biarritz, than anywhere else in southern 
Europe. 

At Nice, Monte Carlo, Naples, Capri, along 
the Italian lakes, and everywhere in French, 



62 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

German or Italian speaking Switzerland, one 
must pay! pay! pay! continually, and often 
for nothing. Here you pay for what you get, 
and then not always its full value, according to 
standards with which you have previously be- 
come familiar. The Pyrenees form quite the 
ideal mountain playground of Europe. 

The Basses-Pyrenees, made up from the 
coherent masses of Navarre, the Basque coun- 
try, Beam, and a part of Chalosse and the 
Landes, contains a superficial area of seven 
hundred and sixty-three thousand nine hundred 
and ninety French acres. Its name comes 
naturally enough from the western end of the 
Pyrenean mountain chain. 

Throughout, the department is watered by 
innumerable streams and rivulets, whose banks 
and beds are as reminiscent of romanticism as 
any waterways extant. The Adour is one of 
the '' picture-rivers " of the world; it joins the 
rustling, tumbling Nive, as it rushes down by 
Cambo from the Spanish valleys, and forms 
the port of Bayonne. 

The Gave de Pau commences in the high 
Pyrenees, in the wonderfully spectacular 
Cirque de Gavarnie, literally in a cascade 
falling nearly one thousand three hundred 
feet, perhaps the highest cascade known in the 



The Pyrenees — Their Geography 63 

four quarters of the globe, or as the French 
say, " in the five parts of the world," which 
is more quaint if less literal. 

The Gave d'Oloron has its birth in the val- 
ley of the Aspe, and is a tributary of the Gave 
de Pau. It is what one might call pretty, but 
has little suggestion of the scenic splendour of 
the latter. 

The Bidassoa is one of the world's historic 
rivers. It forms the Atlantic frontier between 
France and Spain, and was the scene of Well- 
ington's celebrated '' Passage of the Bidas- 
soa " in 1813, also of a still more famous 
historical event which took place centuries be- 
fore on the He des Faisans. 

The Nivelle is a tiny stream which comes to 
light on Spanish soil, over the crest of the 
Pyrenees, and flows rapidly down to the sea 
at Saint-Jean-de-Luz, on the shores of the 
Gulf of Gascony. 

The Ministry for the Interior in France 
classes all these chief rivers as flottahle for 
certain classes of boats and barges through a 
portion of their length, and each of them as 
navigable for a few leagues from the sea. 

Four great '' Eoutes Nationales " cross the 
Basses-Pyrenees. They are the legitimate suc- 
cessors of the " Routes Royales " of 



64 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

monarchial days. The " Route Royale de 
Paris a Madrid, par Vittoria et Burgos," the 
very same over which Oharles Quint travelled 
to Paris, via Amboise, as the guest of 
Frangois Premier, passes via Bayonne and 
Saint-Jean-de-Luz. It is a veritable historic 
highway throughout every league of its length. 
The climate of the Basses-Pyrenees is by no 
means as warm as its latitude would seem to 
bespeak, the snow-capped Pyrenees keeping the 
temperature somewhat low. Pan and Luchon 
in the interior (as well as Bayonne and Biar- 
ritz on the coast) seem, curiously enough, to be 
somewhat milder than the open country be- 
tween. The Pyrenees, though less overrun and 
less exploited than the Alps, are not an un- 
known world to be ventured into only by 
heroes and adventurers. They are what the 
French call a " new world " lively in aspect, 
infinitely varied, and as yet quite unspoiled, take 
them as a whole. This is a fact which makes 
the historical monuments and souvenirs of the 
region the more appealing in interest, particu- 
larly to one who has '' done " the conven- 
tionally overrun resorts of the Tyrol, Egypt or 
Norway ; and the country here is far more ac- 
cessible. Furthermore the comforts of modern 
travel, as regards palace hotels and sleeping- 



The Pyrenees — Their Geography 65 

cars, if less highly developed, are more to be 
remarked. One lives bountifully throughout 
the whole of the French slopes of the 
Pyrenees, from a table well supplied with 
many exotic articles of food such as truffles, 
and salaisons of all sorts, fresh mountain lake 
trout, and those delightful croitchades and 
cassoulets, which in the more populous centres 
are only occasional, expensive luxuries. 

Both the valleys and the mountains are 
equally charming and characteristic. The low- 
landers and the mountaineers are two different 
species of man, but they both join hands in 
the admiration of, and devotion to their be- 
loved country. 

The soft, sloping valleys and the plains be- 
low, in the great watersheds of the Garonne, 
the Aude, the Nive, or the Adour, tell one 
story, and the terre dehout, as the French 
geographers call the mountains, quite another. 
The contrast and juxtaposition of these two 
topographical aspects, the varying manners 
and customs of the peoples, and the picturesque 
framing given to the chateaux and historic 
sites make an undeniably appealing ensemble 
which the writer thinks is not equalled else- 
where in travelled Europe. 

One of the chief characteristics of the chain 



66 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

of the Pyrenees is that it possesses numerous 
passages or passes at very considerable eleva- 
tions, being outranked by surrounding peaks 
usually to the extent of a thousand metres 
only. These passes are not always practicable 
for wheeled traffic to be sure, but still they 
form a series of exits and entrances from and 
into Spain which are open to the dwellers 
in the high valleys of either country on foot 
or on donkey back. They are distinguished 
by various prefixes such as puerto, collada, 
passo, hourque, hourquette, breche, port, col, 
and passage, but one and all answer more or 
less specifically to the name of a mountain 
pass. 

The expression of ^' il y a des Pyrenees,'' 
has been paraphrased in latter days Si^ " il n'y 
a plus de Pyrenees." A Spanish aeronaut has 
recently crossed the crest of the range in a 
balloon, from Pau to Grenada — seven hun- 
dred and thirty kilometres as the birds fly. 
This intrepid sportsman, in his balloon " El 
Cierzo," crossed the divide in the dead of 
night, at an elevation varying between two 
thousand three hundred and two thousand nine 
hundred metres, somewhere between the Pic 
d'Anie and the Pic du Midi d'Ossau. In these 
days when automobiles beat express trains, 



The Pyrenees — Their Geography 67 

and motor-boats beat steamships for speed, 
this crossing of the Pyrenees by balloon stands 
unique in the annals of sport. 

The crossing of the Pyrenees has already 
resolved itself into a momentous economic 
question. Half a dozen roads fit for carriage 
traffic, and two gateways by which pass the 
railways of the east and west coasts, are the 
sole practicable means of communication be- 
tween France and Spain. 

The chain of the Pyrenees from west to east 
presents nearly a uniform height; its sim- 
plicity and uniformity is remarkable. It is a 
veritable wall. 

To-day the Parisian journals are all printing 
scare-heads, reading, " Plus de Pyrenees '* 
and announcing railway projects which will 
bring Paris and Madrid within twenty hours 
of each other, and Paris and Algiers within 
forty. New tunnels, or ports, to the extent of 
five in place of two, are to be opened, and if 
balloons or air-ships don't come to supersede 
railways there will be a net-work of iron rails 
throughout the upper valleys of the Pyrenees 
as there are in Switzerland. 

The ville d'eaux, or watering-places, of the 
Pyrenees date from prehistoric times. At 
Ax-les-Thermes there has recently been dis- 



68 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

covered a tank buried under three metres of 
alluvial soil, and dating from the bronze age. 

Old maps of these parts show that the baths 
and waters of the region were widely known in 
mediaeval times. It was not, however, until the 
reign of Louis XV that the *' stations " took 
on that popular development brought about by 



-PLIJSDE PYKENEES! 

/^^Cl N O FORTES OU VERTEX 




The Five Proposed Railways 

the sovereigns and their courts who frequented 
them. 

Not all of these can be indicated or described 
here but the accompanying map indicates them 
and their locations plainly enough. 

Nearly every malady, real or imaginary 
(and there have been many imaginary ones 
here, that have undergone a cure), can be 



The Pyrenees — Their Geography 69 




70 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 



benefited by the waters of the Pyrenees. Only 
a specialist could prescribe though. 

In point of popularity as resorts the baths 
and springs of the Pyrenees rank about as 
follows: Eaux-Bonnes, Eaux-Chaudes, Cau- 
terets^ St. Sauveur, Bareges, Bagneres de 
Bigorte, Luchon, Salies de Beam, Ussat, Ax- 
les-Thermes, Vernet and Amelie les Bains. 

Whatever the efficacy of their waters may 
be, one and all may be classed as resorts where 
' * all the attractions " — as the posters an- 
nounce — of similar places elsewhere may be 
found, — great and expensive hotels, tea 
shops, theatres, golf, tennis and ** the game." 
If the waters don't cure, one is sure to have 
been amused, if not edified. The watering- 
places of the Pyrenees may not possess estab- 
lishments or bath houses as grand or notorious 
as those of Vichy, Aix, or Homburg, and their 
attendant amusements of sport and high 
stakes and cards may not be the chief reason 
they are patronized, but all the same they are 
very popular little resorts, with as charming 
settings and delightful surroundings as any 
known. 

At Eaux-Bonnes there are four famous 
springs, and at Eaux-Chaudes are six of 
diverse temperatures, all of them exceedingly 



The Pyrenees — Their Geography 71 

efficacious " cures " for rheumatism. At 
Cambo — a new-found retreat for French 
painters and literary folk — are two sources, 
one sulphurous and the other ferruginous. 
Mostly the waters of Cambo are drunk; for 
bathing purposes they are always heated. 
Napoleon first set the pace at Cambo, but its 
fame was a long while becoming widespread. 
In 1808 the emperor proposed to erect a 
military hospital here, and one hundred and 
fifty thousand francs were actually appro- 
priated for it, but the fall of the Empire 
ended that hope as it did many others. In the 
commune of Salies is a source, a fontaine, 
which gives a considerable supply of salt to be 
obtained through evaporation; also in the 
mountains neighbouring upon Saint-Jean-Pied- 
de-Port, and in the Arrondissement of 
Mauleon, are still other springs from which 
the extraction of salt is a profitable industry. 

In the borders of the blue Gave de Pau, in 
full view of the extended horizon on one side 
and the lowland plain on the other, one ap- 
preciates the characteristics of the Pyrenees at 
their very best. 

One recalls the gentle hills and vales of the 
He de France, the rude, granite slopes of 
Bretagne, the sublime peaks of the Savoian 



72 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

Alps, and all the rest of the topographic 
tableau of '' la belle France," but nothing 
seen before — nor to be seen later — excels 
the Pyrenees region for infinite variety. It is 
truly remarkable, from the grandeur of its 
sky-line to the winsomeness and softness of its 
valleys, peopled everywhere (always excepting 
the alien importations of the resorts) with a 
reminiscent civilization of the past, with little 
or no care for the super-refinements of more 
populous and progressve regions. The 
Pyrenees, as a whole, are still unspoiled for 
the serious-minded traveller. This is more 
than can be said of the Swiss Alps, the French 
Riviera, the German Rhine, or the byways of 
merry England. 



CHAPTER IV 

THE PYBENEES — THEIR HISTORY AND PEOPLES 

It may be a question as to who discovered 
the Pyrenees, but Louis XIV was the first ex- 
ploiter thereof — writing in a literal sense — 
when he made the famous remark " II y a des 
Pyrenees." Before that, and to a certain ex- 
tent even to-day, they may well be called the 
'^ Pyrenees inconnues," a terra incognita, as 
the old maps marked the great desert wastes 
of mid-Africa. The population of the entire 
region known as the Pyrenees Frangaises is as 
varied as any conglomerate population to be 
found elsewhere in France in an area of some- 
thing less than six hundred kilometres. 

The Pyrenees were ever a frontier battle- 
ground. At the commencement of the eleventh 
century things began to shape themselves north 
of the mountain chain, and modern France, 
through the feodalite, began to grow into a 
well-defined entity. 

Charles Martel it was, as much as any other, 
who made all this possible, and indeed he began 

73 



74 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

it when lie broke the Saracen power which had 
over-run all Spain and penetrated via the Pyre- 
nean gateways into Gaul. 

The Iberians who flooded southern Gaul, and 
even went so far afield as Ireland, came from 
the southwestern peninsula through the passes 
of the Pyrenees. They were of a southern race, 
in marked distinction to the Franks and Gauls. 
Settling south of the Garonne they became 
known in succeeding generations as Aquitains 
and spoke a local patois, different even from 
that of the Basques whom they somewhat re- 
sembled. The Vascons, or Gascons, were de- 
scendants of this same race, though perhaps 
developed through a mixture of other races. 

Amidst the succession of diverse domina- 
tions, one race alone came through the mill 
whole, unscathed and independent. These 
were the Basques who occupied that region 
best defined to-day as lying around either side 
of the extreme western frontier of France and 
Spain. 

A French savant's opinion of the status of 
this unique province and its people tells the 
story better than any improvisation that can 
be made. A certain M. Garat wrote in the 
mid-nineteenth century as follows: — 

'' Well sheltered in the gorges of the Pyre- 




The Basques of the Mountains 



Pyrenees — History and Peoples 75 

nees, where the Gauls, the Francs and the 
Saracens had never attacked their liberties, 
the Basques have escaped any profound judg- 
ments of that race of historians and philos- 
ophers which have dissected most of the other 
peoples of Europe, Rome even dared not at- 
tempt to throttle the Basques and merge them 
into her absorbing civilization. All around 
them their neighbours have changed twenty 
times their speech, their customs and their 
laws, but the Basques still show their original 
characters and physiognomies, scarcely dimmed 
by the progress of the ages." 

Certainly they are as proud and noble a 
race as one remarks in a round of European 
travel. 

A Basque will always tell you if you ask 
him as to whether he is French or Spanish: 
'' Je ne suis pas Frangais, je suis Basque; 
je ne suis Espagnol, je suis Basque; ou, — tout 
simplement , je suis Jiomme." 

This is as one would expect to find it, but 
it is possible to come across an alien even in 
the country of the Basque. On interrogating a 
smiling peasant driving a yoke of cream-col- 
oured oxen, he replied: '' Mais je ne suis pa^ 
Basque; je suis Perigourdin — born at Bade- 



76 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

fols, just by the old chateau of Bertrand de 
Born the troubadour." 

One may be pardoned for a reference to the 
cagots of the Basque country, a despised race 
of people not unlike the cretins of the Alps. 
As Littre defines them they are distinctly a 
" people of the Pyrenees." The race, as a 
numerous body, practically is extinct to-day. 
They lived in poor, mean cabins, far from the 
towns and under the protection of a seigneu- 
rial chateau or abbey. All intercourse with 
their neighbours was forbidden, and at church 
they occupied a space apart, had a special 
holy water font, and when served with blessed 
bread it was thrown at them as if they were 
dogs, and not offered graciously. 

This may have been uncharitable and un- 
christianlike, but the placing of separate holy 
water-basins in the churches was simply car- 
rying out the principle of no intercourse be- 
tween the Basques and the cagots, not even 
between those who had become, or professed 
to be Christians. '' The loyal hand of a 
Basque should touch nothing that had pre>- 
viously been touched by a cagot." 

From the Basque country, through the heart 
of the Pyrenees, circling Beam, Navarre and 



Pyrenees — History and Peoples 77 

n-r~w I ll =^=^^^^^= '" 

Foix, to Roussillon is a far cry, and a vast 
change in speech and manners. 

Life in a Pyrenean village for a round of 
the seasons would probably cure most of the 
ills that flesh is heir to. It may be doubtful 
as to who was the real inventor of the simple 
life — unless it was Adam — but Jean Jacques 
Rousseau was astonished that people did not 
live more in the open air as a remedy against 
the too liberal taking of medicine. 

" Gouter la liberie sur la montagne im- 
mense! " This was the dream of the poet, 
but it may become the reality of any who 
choose to try it. One remarks a certain indif- 
ference among the mountaineers of the Pyre- 
nees for the conventions of life. 

The mountaineer of the Pyrenees would 
rather ride a donkey than a pure bred Arab 
or drive an automobile. He has no use for 
the proverb : — 

" Honourable is the riding of a horse to the rider, 
But the mule is a dishonour and a donkey a disgrace." 

"When one recalls the fact that there are 
comparatively few of the bovine race in the 
south of France, more particularly in Langue- 
doc and Provence, he understands why it is 
that one finds the cuisine a I'Miile d' olive 



78 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

— and sometimes huile d'arachide, which is 
made from peanuts, and not bad at that, at 
least not unhealthful. 

In the Pyrenees proper, where the pastur- 
age is rich, cattle are more numerous, and 
nowhere, not even in the Allier or Poitou in 
mid-France, will one find finer cows or oxen. 
Little, sure-footed donkeys, with white-gray 
muzzles and crosses down their backs, and 
great cream-coloured oxen seem to do all the 
work that elsewhere is done by horses. There 
are ponies, too, — short-haired, tiny beasts, — 
in the Pyrenees, and in the summer months 
one sees a Basque or a Bearnais horse-dealer 
driving his live stock (ponies only) on the hoof 
all over France, and making sales by the way. 

The Mediterranean terminus of the Pyre- 
nees has quite different characteristics from 
that of the west. Here the mountains end in 
a great promontory which plunges precipi- 
tately into the Mediterranean between the 
Spanish province of Figneras and the rich 
garden-spot of Eoussillon, in France. 

French and Spanish manners, customs and 
speech are here much intermingled. On one 
side of the frontier they are very like those 
on the other; only the uniforms of the official- 
dom made up of douaniers, carabineros, gen- 




In a P\rciu'an Ilenmtagc 



Pyrenees — History and Peoples 79* 

darmes and soldiers differ. The type of face 
and figure is the same; the usual speech is 
the same; and dress varies but little, if at all. 
" Voild! la fraternite Franco-Espagnole. 

One ever-present reminder of two alien peo- 
ples throughout all Roussillon is the presence 
of the chateaux-forts, the walled towns, the 
watch-towers, and defences of this mountain 
frontier. 

The chief characteristics of Roussillon, from 
the seacoast plain up the mountain valleys to 
the passes, are the chateau ruins, towers and 
moss-grown hermitages, all relics of a day of 
vigorous, able workmen, who built, if not for 
eternity, at least for centuries. In the Pyre- 
nees-Orientales alone there are reckoned thirty- 
five abandoned hermitages, any one of which 
will awaken memories in the mind of a ro- 
mantic novelist which will supply him with 
more background material than he can use up 
in a dozen mediaeval romances. And if he 
takes one or more of these hallowed spots of 
the Pyrenees for a setting he will have some- 
thing quite as worthy as the overdone Ital- 
ian hilltop hermitage, and a good deal fresher 
in a colour sense. 

The strategic Pyrenean frontier, nearly six 
hundred kilometres, following the various 



80 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

twistings and turnings, kas not varied in any 
particular since the treaty of the Pyrenees 
in 1659. From Cap Cerbere on the Mediter- 
ranean it runs, via the crests of the Monts 
Alberes, up to Perthus, and then by the crests 
of the Pyrenees-Orientales, properly called, up 
to Puigmal; and traversing the Segre, crosses 
the Col de la Perche and passes the Pic Negre, 
separating France from the Val d'Andorre, 
crosses the G-aronne to attain the peaks of the 
Pyrenees-Occidentales, and so, via the Foret 
d'Iraty, and through the Pays Basque, finally 
comes to the banks of the Bidassoa, between 
Hendaye and Irun-Feuntarrabia. 

The Treaty of Verdun gave the territory of 
France as extending up to the Pyrenees and 
beyond (to include the Comte de Barcelone), 
but this limit in time was rearranged to stop 
at the mountain barrier. The graft didn't 
work ! Eoussillon remained for long in the pos- 
session of the house of Aragon, and its peo- 
ple were, in the main, closely related with the 
Catalans over the border, but the Treaty of 
the Pyrenees, in 1659, definitely acquired this 
fine wine-growing province for the French. 

The frontier of the Pyrenees is much better 
defended by natural means than that of the 
Alps. For four hundred kilometres of its 



Pyrenees — History and Peoples 81 

length — quite two-thirds of its entirety — 
the passages and breaches are inaccessible to 
an army, or even to a carriage. 

From the times of Hannibal and Charle- 
magne up to the wars of the Empire only the 
extremities have been crossed for the inva- 
sion of alien territory. It is in these situa- 
tions that one finds the frontier fortresses of 
to-day; at Figueras and Gerone in Spain; in 
France at Bellegarde (Col de Perthus), Prats- 
de-MolIo, Mont Louis, Villefranche and Perpi- 
gnan, in the east; and at Portalet, Navar- 
rino, Saint- Jean-Pied-de-Port (guarding the 
Col de Eongevaux) and Bayonne in the west. 
Bayonne and Perpignan guard the only easily 
practicable routes (Paris-Madrid and Paris- 
Barcelona), 

Hannibal and Charlemagne are the two 
great names of early history identified with 
the Pyrenees. Hannibal exploited more than 
one popular scenic touring ground of to-day, 
and for a man who is judged only by his deeds 
— not by his personality, for no authentic por- 
trait of him exists, even in words — he cer- 
tainly was endowed with a profound foresight. 
Charlemagne, warrior, lawgiver and patron 
of letters, predominant figure of a gloomy age, 
met the greatest defeat of his career in the 



82 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

Pyrenees, at Bongevaux, when he advanced on 
Spain in 778. 

Close by the Cap Cerbere, where French and 
Spanish territory join, is the little town and 
pass of Banyuls. This Col de Banyuls was, 
in 1793, the witness of a supreme act of pa- 
triotism. The Spaniards were biding their 
time to invade France via Eoussillon, and 
made overtures to the people of the little vil- 
lage of Banyuls — famous to-day for its vins 
de liqueur and not much else, but at that time 
numbering less than a thousand souls — to 
join them and make the road easy. The pro- 
cureur du roi replied simply: '^ Les habitants 
de Banyuls etant frangais devaient tous 
mourir pour VJionneur et Vindependance de 
la France." 

Three thousand Spaniards thereupon at- 
tacked the entire forces of the little commune 
— men, women and children — but finding 
their efforts futile were forced to retire. This 
ended the *' Battle of Banyuls," one of the 
'' little -Wars " that historians have usually 
neglected, or overlooked, in favour of some- 
thing more spectacular. 

On the old " Route Royale " from Paris to 
Barcelona, via Perpignan, are two chefs- 
d'cEuvre of the mediasval bridge-builder, made 



Pyrenees — History and Peoples 83 

before the days of steel rails and wire ropes 
and all their attendant ugliness. These are 
the Pont de Perpignan over the Basse, and 
the Pont de Ceret on the Tech, each of them 
spanning the stream by one single, graceful 
arch. The latter dates from 1336, and it is 
doubtful if the modern stone-mason could do 
his work as well as he who was responsible 
for this architectural treasure. 

One finds a bit of superstitious ignorance 
once and again, even in enlightened France 
of to-day. It was not far from here, on the 
road to the Col de Banyuls, that we were 
asked by a peasant from what country we 
came. He was told by way of a joke that we 
were Chinese. *' Est-ce loin? '' he asked. 
*' Deux cents li-eues! *' '' Diahle! c'est une 
bonne distance! " One suspects that he knew 
more than he was given credit for, and per- 
haps it was he that was doing the joking, for 
he said by way of parting: ''Ma foi, c'est 
hien triste d'etre si loin de votre mere." 

What a little land of contrasts the region 
of the Pyrenees is ! It is all things to all men. 
From the low-l^ang valleys and sea-coast 
plains, as one ascends into the upper regions, 
it is as if one went at once into another coun- 
try. Certainly no greater contrast is marked 



84 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

in all France than that between the Hautes- 
Pyrenees and the Landes for instance. 

The Hautes-Pyrenees of to-day was for- 
merly made up of Bigorre, Armagnac and the 
extreme southerly portion of Gascogne, Caesar 
called the people Tarbelli, Bigerriones and 
Flussates, and Visigoths, Franks and Gascons 
prevailed over their destinies in turn. 

In the early feudal epoch Bigorre, '' the 
country of the four valleys," had its own 
counts, but was united with Beam in 1252, 
becoming a part of the patrimony which Henri 
Quatre brought ultimately to the crown of 
France. 

Antiquities before the middle ages are rare 
in these parts, in spite of the memories re- 
maining from Eoman times. Perhaps the 
greatest of these are the baths and springs 
at Cauterets, one of them being known as the 
Bains des Espagnoles and the other as the 
Bains de Cesar. These unquestionably were 
developed in Roman times. 

The chief architectural glory of the region 
is the ancient city of St. Bertrand, the capi- 
tal of Comminges, the ancient Lugdunum Con- 
venarum of Strabon and Pliny. Its fortifica- 
tions and its remarkable cathedral place it in 




A Mountaineer of the Pyrenees 



Pyrenees — History and Peoples 85 

the ranks with Carcassonne, Aigues-Mortes 
and Beziers. 

The manners and customs of the Bigordans 
of the towns (not to be confounded with the 
Bigoudens of Brittany) have succumbed some- 
what to the importation of outside ideas by 
the masses who throng their baths and springs, 
but nevertheless their main characteristics 
stand out plainly. 

Quite different from the Bearnais are the 
Bigordans, and, somewhat uncharitably, the lat- 
ter have a proverb which given in their own 
tongue is as follows: — '' Bearnes faus et 
courtes." Neighbourly jealousy accounts for 
this. The Bearnais are morose, steady and 
commercial, the Bigordans lively, bright and 
active, and their sociability is famed afar. 

In the open country throughout the Pyre- 
nees, there are three classes of inhabitants, 
those of the mountains and high valleys, those 
of the slopes, and those of the plains. The 
first are hard-working and active, but often 
ignorant and superstitious; the second are 
more gay, less frugal and better livers than 
the mountaineers; and those of the plains are 
often downright lazy and indolent. The men- 
dicant race, of which old writers told, has 
apparently disappeared. There are practi- 



86 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

cally no beggars in France except gypsies, 
and there is no mistaking a gypsy for any 
other species. 

In general one can say that the inhabitants 
of the high Pyrenees are a simple, good and 
generous people, and far less given to excess 
than many others of the heterogeneous mass 
which make up the population of modern 
France. 

Simple and commodious and made of the wool 
of the country are the general characteristics of 
the costumes of these parts, as indeed they are 
of most mountain regions. But the distinct- 
ive feature, with the men as with the women, 
is the topknot coiffure. In the plains, the 
men wear the pancake-like heret, and in the 
high valleys a sort of a woollen bonnet — 
something like a Phrygian cap. With the 
women it is a sort of a hood of red woollen 
stuff, black-bordered and exceedingly pictur- 
esque. '' C'est un joli cadre pour le visage 
d'une jolie femme," said a fat commercial 
traveller, with an eye for pretty women, whom 
the writer met at a Tarbes table d'hote. 

A writer of another century, presumably 
untravelled, in describing the folk of the Pyre- 
nees remarked: '' The Highlanders of the 
Pyrenees put one in mind of Scotland; they 



Pyrenees — History and Peoples 87 

have round, flat caps and loose breeches." 
Never mind the breeches, but the beret of the 
Basque is no more like the tam-o'-shanter of 
the Scot than is an anchovy like a herring. 

An English traveller once remarked on the 
peculiar manner of transport in these parts in 
emphatic fashion. '' With more sense than 
John Bull, the Pyrenean carter knows how to 
build and load his wagon to the best advan- 
tage," he said. He referred to the great carts 
for transporting wine casks and barrels, built 
with the hind wheels much higher than the 
front ones. It's a simple mechanical exposi- 
tion of the principle that a wagon so built 
goes up-hill much easier. 

Here in the Hautes-Pyrenees they speak the 
speech of Languedoc, with variations, idioms 
and bizarre interpolations, which may be Span- 
ish, but sound like Arabic. At any rate it's 
a beautiful, lisping patois, not at all like the 
speech of Paris, " twanged through the nose," 
as the men of the Midi said of it when they 
went up to the capital in Revolutionary times 
" to help capture the king's castle." 

The great literary light of the region was 
Despourrins, a poet of the eighteenth century, 
whose verses have found a permanent place in 
French literature, and whose rhymes were 



88 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

chanted as were those of the troubadours of 
centuries before. 

To just how great an extent the patois dif- 
fers from the French tongue the following 
verse of Despourrins will show : — 

" Aci, debat aqueste peyre, 
Repaiise lou plus gran de touts lou medecis, 
Qui de poii d'esta chens besis, 
En a remplit lou cimetyre. 

" Tci, sous cette pierre, 
Repose le plus grand de tons les m^dicins, 
Qui de peur d'§tre sans voisins 
En a rempli le cimetiere." 

A humourist also was this great poet! 

Throughout the Pyrenean provinces, and 
along the shores of the Mediterranean, from 
Catalonia to the Bouches-du-Rhone are found 
the Gitanos, or the French Gypsies, who do 
not differ greatly from others of their tribe 
wherever found. This perhaps is accounted 
for by the fact that the shrines of their patron 
saint • — Sara, the servant of the ' ' Three 
Maries " exiled from Judea, and who settled 
at Les Saintes Marie s-de-la-Mer — was lo- 
cated near the mouth of the Rhone. This same 
shrine is a place of pilgrimage for the gypsies 
of all the world, and on the twenty-fourth of 



Pyrenees — History and Peoples 89 

May one may see sights here such as can be 
equalled nowhere else. Not many travellers' 
itineraries have ever included a visit to this 
humble and lonesome little fishing village of 
the Bouches-du-Rhone, judging from the infre- 
quency with which one meets written accounts. 

Gypsy bands are numerous all through the 
Departements of the south of France, espe- 
cially in Herault and the Pyrenees-Orientales. 
Like most of their kind they are usually horse- 
traders, and perhaps horse-stealers, for their 
ideas of honesty and probity are not those of 
other men. They sometimes practise as sort 
of quack horse-doctors and horse and dog 
clippers, etc., and the women either make 
baskets, or, more frequently, simply beg, or 
*' tire les cartes " and tell fortunes. They 
sing and dance and do many other things hon- 
est and dishonest to make a livelihood. Their 
world's belongings are few and their wants are 
not great. For the most part their possessions 
consist only of their personal belongings, a 
horse, a donkey or a mule, their caravan, or 
roulotte, and a gold or silver chain or two, ear- 
rings in their ears, and a knife — of course a 
knife, for the vagabond gypsy doesn't fight 
with fire-arms. 

The further one goes into the French valleys 



90 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

of the Pyrenees the more one sees the real Gi- 
tanos of Spam, or at least of Spanish ancestry. 
Like all gypsy folk, they have no fixed abode, 
but roam and roam and roam, though never far 
away from their accustomed haunts. They mul- 
tiply, but are seldom cross-bred out of their 
race. 

It's an idyllic life that the Gitano and the 
Romany-Chiel leads, or at least the poet would 
have us think so. 

" Upon the road to Romany 
It's- stay, friend, stay ! 
There's lots o' love and lots o' time 

To linger on the way ; 
Poppies for the twilight, 

Roses for the noon, 
It's happy goes as lucky goes 
To Romany in June." 

But as the Frenchman puts it, " look to the 
other side of the coin." 

Brigandage is the original profession of the 
gypsy, though to-day the only stealing which 
they do is done stealthily, and not in the plain 
hold-up fashion. They profess a profound re- 
gard for the Catholic religion, but they practise 
other rites in secret, and form what one versed 
in French Catholicism would call a '* culte par- 
ticuliere." It is known that they baptize their 



Pyrenees — History and Peoples 91 




92 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

newly-born children as often as possible — of 
course each time in a different place — in order 
that they may solicit alms in each case. Down- 
right begging is forbidden in France, but for 
such a purpose the law is lenient. 

They are gross feeders, the Gitanos, and a 
fowl '^ a little high " has no terrors for them; 
they have even been known to eat sea-gulls, 
which no white man has ever had the temerity 
to taste. It has been said that they will eat 
cats and dogs and even rats, but this is doubt- 
less another version of the Chinese fable. At 
any rate a mere heating of their viands in a 
saucepan — not by any stretch of the imagina- 
tion can it be called cooking — is enough for 
them, and what their dishes lack in cooking 
is made up by liberal additions of salt, pepper, 
piment (which is tobacco or something like it), 
and saffron. 

As to type, the French Gitanos are of that 
olive-brown complexion, with the glossy black 
hair, usually associated with the stage gypsy, 
rather small in stature, but well set up, strong 
and robust, fine eyes and features and, with 
respect to the young women and girls (who 
marry young), often of an astonishing beauty. 
In the course of a very few years the beauty 
of the women pales considerably, owing, no 



Pyrenees — History and Peoples 93 

doubt, to their hard life, but among the men 
their fine physique and lively emotional fea- 
tures endure until well past the half-century. 
The gypsies are supposedly a joyful, ami- 
able race ; sometimes they are and sometimes 
they are not; but looking at them all round 
it is not difficult to apply the verses of Be- 
ranger, beginning: 

" Sorciers, bateleurs ou filous 
Reste immonde 
D'un ancien monde 
Gais Boh^miens, d'ou venez-vouB." 

One other class of residents in the Pyrenees 
must be mentioned here, and that is the family 
of Ursus and their descendants. 

The bears of the Pyrenees are of two sorts ; 
the dignified Ours des Pyrenees is a versatile 
and accomplished creature. Sometimes he is 
a carnivorous beast, and sometimes he is a 
vegetarian pure and simple — one of the kind 
which will not even eat eggs. The latter species 
is more mischievous than his terrible brother, 
for he forages stealthily in the night and eats 
wheat, buckwheat, maize, and any other break- 
fast-food, prepared or semi-prepared, he finds 
handy. 

The carnivorous breed wage war against cat- 



94 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

tie and sheep, or did when they were more nu- 
merous, so that all live stock were obliged to 
be enclosed at night. Curiously enough, both 
species are fattest in winter, when conditions 
of life are supposed to be the hardest. There 
are wolves, too, in the Pyrenees, but they are 
not frequently met with. A bear will not attack 
a wolf, but a number of wolves together will 
attack a bear. 



CHAPTEE V 



ROUSSILLOlSr AND THE CATALANS 



^ffUfih '-It. . 




I\piJS3lIL0I\I 



EoussiLLON is a curious province. '' Kous- 
sillon is a bow with two strings," say the in- 
habitants. The workers in the vineyards of 
other days are becoming fishermen, and the 
fishermen are becoming vineyard workers. 
The arts of Neptune and the wiles of Bacchus 
have however conspired to give a prosperity 
to Roussillon which many more celebrated 
provinces lack. 

The Eoussillon of other days, a feudal power 

96 



96 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

in its time, with its counts and nobles, has 
become but a Departement of latter-day France. 
The first historical epochs of Roussillon are but 
obscurely outlined, but they began when Hanni- 
bal freed the Pyrenees in 536, and in time the 
Komans became masters here, as elsewhere in 
Gaul. 

Then there came three hundred years of Visi- 
goth rule, which brought the Saracens, and, 
in 760, Pepin claimed Roussillon for France. 
Then began the domination of the counts. 
First they were but delegates of the king, but 
in time they usurped royal authority and be- 
came rulers in their own right. 

Eoussillon had its own particular counts, but 
in a way they bowed down to the king of Ara- 
gon, though indeed the kings of France up to 
Louis IX considered themselves suzerains. By 
the Treaty of Corbeil Louis IX renounced this 
fief in 1258 to his brother king of Aragon. At 
the death of James I of Aragon his states were 
divided among his children, and Roussillon 
came to the kings of Majorca. Wars within 
and without now caused an era of bloodshed. 
Jean II, attacked by the men of Navarre and 
of Catalonia, demanded aid of Louis XI, who 
sent seven hundred lances and men, and three 
hundred thousand gold crown pieces, which 



Roussillon and the Catalans 97 

latter the men of Roussillon were obliged to 
repay when the war was over. Jean II, Comte 
de Roussillon, hedged and demanded delay, and 
in due course was obliged to pawn his count- 
ship as security. This the Roussillonnais re- 
sented and revolt followed, when Louis XI with- 
out more ado went up against Perpignan and 
besieged it on two occasions before he could 
collect the sum total of his bill. 

Charles VIII, returning from his Italian 
travels, in a generous frame of mind, gave back 
the province to the king of Aragon without de- 
manding anything in return. Ferdinand of 
Aragon became in time king of Spain, by his 
marriage with Isabella, and Roussillon came 
again directly under Spanish domination. 

Meantime the geographical position of Rous- 
sillon was such that it must either become a 
part of France or a buffer-state, or duelling 
ground, where both races might fight out their 
quarrels. Neither Francois I nor Louis XIII 
thought of anything but to acquire the prov- 
ince for France, and so it became a battle- 
ground where a continuous campaign went on 
for years, until, in fact, the Grand Conde, after 
many engagements, finally entered Perpignan 
and brought about the famous Treaty of the 
Pyrenees, signed on the He des Faisans at the 



98 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

other extremity of the great frontier mountain 
chain. 

The antique monuments of Roussillon are 
not many; principally they are the Roman 
baths at Arles-sur-Tech, the tomb of Constant, 
son of Constantine, at Elne, and an old 
Mohammedan or Moorish mosque, afterwards 
serving as a Christian church, at Planes. The 
ancient city of Ruscino, the chief Roman set- 
tlement, has practically disappeared, a tower, 
called the Tor de Castel-Rossello, only remain- 
ing. 

Impetuosity of manner, freedom in their so- 
cial relations, and a certain egotism have ever 
been the distinctive traits of the Roussillonnais. 
It was so in the olden times, and the traveller 
of to-day will have no difficulty in finding the 
same qualities. Pierre de Marca first discov- 
ered, and wrote of these traits in 1655, and 
his observations still hold good. 

Long contact with Spain and Catalonia has 
naturally left its impress on Roussillon, both 
with respect to men and manners. The Span- 
ish tone is disappearing in the towns, but in 
the open country it is as marked as ever. 
There one finds bull-fights, cock-fights, and wild, 
abandoned dancing, not to say guitar twanging, 
and incessant cigarette rolling and smoking, 




— — — . .^B^ 



Catalans of Roussillon 



Roussillon and the Catalans 99 

and all sorts of moral contradictions — albeit 
there is no very immoral sentiment or motive. 
These things are observed alike of the Rous- 
sillonnais and the Catalonians, just over the 
border. 

The bull-fight is the chief joy and pride of 
the people. The labourer will leave his fields, 
the merchant his shop, and the craftsman his 
atelier to make one of an audience in the arena. 
Not in Spain itself, at Barcelona, Bilboa, Se- 
ville or Madrid is a bull-fight throng more 
critical or insistent than at Perpignan. 

He loves immensely well to dance, too, the 
Roussillonnais, and he often carries it to excess. 
It is his national amusement, as is that of the 
Italian the singing of serenades beneath your 
window. On all great gala occasions through- 
out Roussillon a place is set apart for dancing, 
usually on the bare or paved ground in the open 
air, not only in the country villages but in the 
towns and cities as well. 

The dances are most original. Ordinarily 
the men will dance by themselves, a species of 
muscular activity which they call '' lo bail." 
A contrepas finally brings in a mixture of 
women, the whole forming a melange of all the 
gyrations of a dervish, the swirls of the Spanish 

LOFC* 



100 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

dancing girl and the quicksteps of a Virginia 
reel. 

The music of these dances is equally bizarre. 
A flute called lo flaviol, a tamhorin, a hautboy, 
prima and tenor^ and a cornemeuse, or bor- 
rassa, usually compose the orchestra, and the 
music is more agreeable than might be sup- 
posed. 

In Eoussillon the religious fetes and cere- 
monies are conducted in much the flowery, os- 
tentatious manner that they are in Spain, and 
not at all after the manner of the simple, devout 
fetes and pardons of Bretagne. The Fete de 
Jeudi-Saint, and the Fete-Dieu in Eoussillon 
are gorgeous indeed; sanctuaries become as 
theatres and tapers and incense and gay vest- 
ments and chants make the pageants as much 
pagan as they are Christian. 

The coiffure of the women of Eoussillon is 
a handkerchief hanging as a veil on the back 
of the head, and fastened by the ends beneath 
the chin, with a knot of black ribbon at each 
temple. 

Their waist line is tightly drawn, and their 
bodice is usually laced down the front like those 
of the German or Tyrolean peasant maid. A 
short skirt, in ample and multifarious pleats, 
and coloured stockings finish off a costume as 




;^laneke Mc Manas 

v(out!t/icn- '• 
'^ mod y 



The JVomen of Rous sill on 



Roussillon and the Catalans 101 

unlike anything else seen in France as it is like 
those of Catalonia in Spain. 

The great Spanish cloak, or capuchon, is also 
an indispensable article of dress for the men 
as well as for the women. 

The men wear a tall, red, liberty-cap sort of 
a bonnet, its top-knot hanging down to the 
shoulder — always to the left. A short vest 
and wide bodied pantaloons, joined together 
with yards of red sash, wound many times 
tightly around the waist, complete the men's 
costume, all except their shoes, which are of a 
special variety known as spardilles, or espa- 
drilles, another Spanish affectation. 

The speech of Roussillon used to be Catalan, 
and now of course it is French ; but in the coun- 
try the older generations are apt to know much 
Catalan-Spanish and little French. 

Just what variety of speech the Catalan 
tongue was has ever been a discussion with 
the word makers. It was not Spanish exactly 
as known to-day, and has been called roman 
vulgaire, rustique, and provincial, and many 
of its words and phrases are supposed to have 
come down from the barbarians or the Arabs. 

In 1371 the Catalan tongue already had a 
poetic art, a dictionary of rhymes, and a gram- 
mar, and many inscriptions on ancient monu- 



102 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

ments in these parts (eightli, ninth and tenth 
centuries) were in that tongue. In the twelfth 
and thirteenth centuries the Catalan tongue 
possessed a written civil and maritime law, 
thus showing it was no bastard. 

A fatality pursued everything Catalan how- 
ever; its speech became Spanish, and its na- 
tionality was swallowed up in that of Castille. 
At any rate, as the saying goes in Eoussillon, 
— and no one will dispute it, — " one must be 
a Catalan to understand Catalan." 

The Pays-de-Fenouillet, of which St. Paul 
was the former capital, lies in the valley of 
the Agly. Saint-Paul-de-Fenouillet is the pres- 
ent commercial capital of the region, if the title 
of commercial capital can be appropriately be- 
stowed upon a small town of two thousand in- 
habitants. The old province, however, was 
swallowed up by Eoussillon, which in turn has 
become the Departement of the Pyrenees-Ori- 
entales. 

The feudality of these parts centred around 
the Chateau de Fenouillet, now a miserable 
ruin on the road to Carcassonne, a few kilo- 
metres distant. There are some ruined, but 
still traceable, city walls at Saint-Paul-de-Fe- 
nouillet, but nothing else to suggest its one-time 
importance, save its fourteenth-century church, 



Roussillon and the Catalans 103 

and the great tower of its ancient chapter- 
house. 

Nearer Perpignan is Latour-de-France, the 
frontier town before Richelieu was able to an- 
nex Roussillon to his master's crown. 

Latour-de-France also has the debris of a 
chateau to suggest its former greatness, but 
its small population of perhaps twelve hundred 
persons think only of the culture of the vine 
and the olive and have little fancy for historical 
monuments. 

Here, and at Estagel, on the Perpignan road, 
the Catalan tongue is still to be heard in all 
its silvery picturesqueness. 

Estagel is what the French call '' une jolie 
petite ville; " it has that wonderful background 
of the Pyrenees, a frame of olive-orchards and 
vineyards, two thousand inhabitants, the Hotel 
Gary, a most excellent, though unpretentious, 
little hotel, and the birthplace of Frangois 
Arago as its chief sight. Besides this, it has a 
fine old city gate and a great clock-tower which 
is a reminder of the Belfry of Bruges. The 
wines of the neighbourhood, the macaheu and 
the malvoisie are famous. 

North of Estagel, manners and customs and 
the patois change. Everything becomes Lan- 
guedocian. In France the creation of the mod- 



104 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

em departments, replacing the ancient prov- 
inces, has not levelled or changed ethnological 
distinctions in the least. 

The low-lying, but rude, crests of the Cor- 
bieres cut out the view northward from the 
valley of the Agly. The whole region round- 
about is strewn with memories of feudal times, 
a chateau here, a tower there, but nothing of 
great note. The Chateau de Queribus, or all 
that is left of it, a great octagonal thirteenth- 
century donjon, still guards the route toward 
Limoux and Carcassonne, at a height of nearly 
seven hundred metres. In the old days this 
route formed a way in and out of Roussillon, 
but now it has grown into disuse. 

Cucugnan is only found on the maps of the 
Etat-Major, in the Post-Office Guide, and in 
Daudet's '^ Lettres de Mon Moulin." We our- 
selves merely recognized it as a familiar name. 
The " Cure de Cucugnan " was one of Dau- 
det's heroes, and belonged to these parts. The 
Provengal literary folks have claimed him to 
be of Avignon; though it is hard to see why 
when Daudet specifically wrote C-u-c-u-g-n-a-n. 
Nevertheless, even if they did object to Dau- 
det's slander of Tarascon, the Provengaux are 
willing enough to appropriate all he did as be- 
longing to them. 



Roussillon and the Catalans 105 

The Catalan water, or wine, bottle, called the 
porro, is everywhere in evidence in Roussillon. 
Perhaps it is a Mediterranean specialty, for 
the Sicilians and the Maltese use the same 
thing. It's a curious affair, something like an 
alchemist's alembic, and you drink from its 
nozzle, holding it above the level of your mouth 
and letting the wine trickle down your throat 
in as ample a stream as pleases your fancy. 

Those who have become accustomed to it, 
will drink their wine no other way, claiming 
it is never so sweet as when drunk from the 
porro. 

" Du miel delaye dans un rayon de soleil." 

" Boire la vie et la sante quand on le boit c'est le vin ideal" 

Apparently every Catalan peasant's house- 
hold has one of these curious glass bottles with 
its long tapering spout, and when a Catalan 
drinks from it, pouring a stream of wine di- 
rectly into his mouth, he makes a '' study " 
and a '' picture " at the same time. 

A variation of the same thing is the gourd 
or leathern bottle of the mountaineer. It is 
difficult to carry a glass bottle such as the porro 
around on donkey back, and so the thing is 
made of leather. The neck of this is of wood, 



106 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

and a stopper pierced with a fine hole screws 
into it. 

It comes in all sizes, holding from a bottleful 
to ten litres. The most common is a two-litre 
one. "When you want to drink you hold the 
leather bag high in the air and pour a thin 
stream of wine into your mouth. The art is 
to stop neatly with a jerk, and not spill a drop. 
One can acquire the art, and it will be found 
an exceedingly practical way to carry drink. 

It is a curious, little-known corner of Eu- 
rope, where France and Spain join, at the east- 
ern extremity of the Pyrenees, at Cap Cerbere. 
One read in classic legend will find some re- 
semblance between Cap Cerbere and the terri- 
ble beast with three heads who guarded the 
gates of hell. There may be some justification 
for this, as Pomponius Mela, a Latin geogra- 
pher, bom however in Andalusia, wrote of a 
Cervaria locus, which he designated as the 
finis GallicB. Then, through evolution, we have 
Cervaria, which in turn becomes the Catalan 
village of Cerveia. This is the attitude of the 
historians. The etymologists put it in this 
wise: Cervaria — meaning a wooded valley 
peopled with cerfs (stags). The reader may 
take his choice. 

At any rate the Catalan Cerbere, known to- 



Roussillon and the Catalans 107 

day only as the frontier French station on the 
line to Barcelona, has become an unlovely rail- 
way junction, of little appeal except in the story 
of its past. 

In the twelfth century the place had already 
attained to prominence, and its feudal seigneur, 
named Rabedos, built a public edifice for civic 
pride, and a church which he dedicated to San 
Salvador. 

In 1361 Guillem de Pau, a noble of the rank 
of donzell, and a member of a family famous 
for its exploits against the Moors, became 
Seigneur de Cerbere, and the one act of his 
life which puts him on record as a feudal lord 
of parts is a charter signed by him giving the 
fishing rights offshore from Collioure, for the 
distance of ten leagues, to one Pierre Huguet 
— for a price. Thus is recorded a very early 
instance of official sinning. One certainly can- 
not sell that which he has not got ; even mari- 
time tribunals of to-day don't recognize any- 
thing beyond the '' three mile limit." 

The seigneurs of Pau, who were Baillis de 
Cerbere, came thus to have a hand in the con- 
duct of affairs in the Mediterranean, though 
their own bailiwick was nearer the Atlantic 
coast. At this time there were nine vassal 



108 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

chiefs of families who owed allegiance to the 
head. After the fourteenth century this fron- 
tier territory belonged, for a time, to the Sei- 
gneurs des Abelles, their name coming from 
another little feudal estate half hidden in one 
of the Mediterranean valleys of the Pyrenees. 

The chapel of Cerbere, founded by Rabedos 
in the twelfth century, had fallen in ruins by 
the end of the fourteenth century, but many 
pious legacies left to it were conceded to the 
clercs heneficiaires, a body of men in holy or- 
ders who had influence enough in the courts 
of justice to be able to claim as their own cer- 
tain '* goods of the church." Louis XIV cut 
short these clerical benefits, however, and gave 
them — by what right is quite vague — to his 
mareclial, Joseph de Rocabruna. 

Some two centuries ago Cerbere possessed 
something approaching the dignity of a chateau- 
fortress. 

An act of the 25th May, 1700, refers to the 
Chateau de Caroig, perhaps the Quer-Roig. 
The name now applies, however, only to a mass 
of ruins on the summit of a near-by mountain 
of the same name. Not every one in the neigh- 
bourhood admits this, some preferring to be- 
lieve that the same heap of stones was once 



Roussillon and the Catalans 109 

a signal tower by which a warning fire was 
built to tell of the approach of the Saracens 
or the pirates of Barbary. It might well have 
been both watch-tower and chateau. 



CHAPTER VI 

FKOM PEKPIGNAN TO THE SPANISH FRONTIEE 




Once Perpignan was a fortified town of the 
first class, but now, save for its old Citadelle 
and the Castillet, its warlike aspect has dis- 
appeared. 

One of Gny de Maupassant's heroes, having 
been asked his impressions of Algiers, replied, 
'^ Alger est une ville hlanche! " If it had been 
Perpignan of which he was speaking, he would 
have said: '' Perpignan est une ville rouge! '* 

110 



Prom Perpignan to Spanish Frontier HI 

for red is the dominant colour note of the en- 
tire city, from the red brick Castillet to the 
sidewalks in front of the cafes. Colour, how- 
ever, is not the only thing that astonishes one 
at Perpignan ; the tramontane, that cruel north- 
west wind, as cruel almost as the " mistral " 
of Provence, blows at times so fiercely that one 
wonders that one brick upon another stands in 
place on the grand old Castillet tower. 

The brick fortifications of Perpignan are, or 
were, wonderful constructions, following, in 
form and system, the ancient Roman manner. 

It was a sacrilege to strip from the lovely 
city of Perpignan its triple ramparts and Cita- 
delle, leaving only the bare walls of the Cas- 
tillet, the sole remainder of its strength of old. 

Perpignan 's walls have disappeared, but still 
one realizes full well what an important stra- 
tegic point it is, guarding, as it does, the east- 
ern gateway into Spain. 

All the cities of the Midi possess some char- 
acteristic by which they are best known. Tou- 
louse has its Capitole, Nimes its Arena, Aries 
its Alyscamps, Pau its Chateau, and Perpignan 
its Castillet. 

Built entirely of rosj^-red brick, its battle- 
mented walls rise beside the Quai de la Basse 
to-day as proudly as they ever did, though 



112 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

shorn of their supporting ramparts, save the 
Porte Notre Dame adjoining. That fortunately 
has been spared. Above this Porte Notre 
Dame is a figure of the Madonna, which, as well 
as the gate, dates from the period when the 
kings of Aragon retook possession of the eph- 
emeral Royaume de Majorque, of which Per- 
pignan was the capital, — a glory, by the way, 
which endured less than seventy years, but 
which has left a noticeable trace in all things 
relating to the history of the region. 

In the tenth century Perpignan was known 
only as " Villa Perpiniani," indeed it so re- 
mained until it was conquered by Louis XIII, 
when it became definitely French. Bloody war, 
celebrated sieges, ravages by the pest, an earth- 
quake or two, and incendiaries without num- 
ber could not raze the city which in time be- 
came one of the great frontier strongholds of 
France. 

The Place de la Loge, the great cafe centre 
of Perpignan, is unique among the smaller 
cities of France. Here is animation at all hours 
of the day — and night, a perpetual going and 
coming of all the world, a veritable Rialto or 
a Rue de la Paix. It is the business centre of 
the city, and also the centre of its pleasures, 
a veritable forum. Cafes are all about; even 




Porte Xotrc Daiiw and the Castillct. Per pig nan 



From Perpignan to Spanish Frontier 113 

the grand old Loge de Mer, a dehcious construc- 
tion of the fourteenth century, is a cafe. 

What a charming structure this Loge is ! Its 
fourteenth-century constructive elements have 
been further beautified with late flowering 
Gothic of a century and a half later, and its 
great bronze lamps suggest a symbolism which 
stands for eternity, or at any rate bespeaks the 
solidity of Perpignan for all time. 

Beside the Loge is the Hotel de Ville, with 
its round-arched doorways and windows, iron- 
barred in real mediaeval fashion, with dainty 
colonnettes between. 

Next is the ancient Palais de Justice, adjoin- 
ing the Hotel de Ville. It has a battery of mul- 
lioned twin windows of narrow aperture, and is 
in perfect keeping with the mediaeval trinity of 
which it is a part. 

The cathedral of St. Jean is another of Per- 
pignan 's historical monuments, but it is far 
from lovely at first glance, an atrocious fac^ade 
having been added by some ** restorer " in 
recent times with more suitable ideas for build- 
ing fortresses than churches. 

The tower of the cathedral is modern and, 
taken as a whole, is undeniably effective with 
its iron cage and bell-rack. The original tower 



114 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

fell two centuries ago during an extra violent 
blow of the tramontane. 

Passing centuries have changed Perpignan 
but, little, and aside from the boulevards and 
malls the streets are narrow and tortuous and 
almost devoid of sidewalks. There are innu- 
merable little bijou houses of Gothic or Ee- 
naissance times, and in one narrow street, 
called quaintly Main de Fer, one sees a real, 
unspoiled bit of the sixteenth century. One 
curious house, now occupied by the Cercle de 
1 'Union, dates from 1508, and was erected for 
one Sancho or Xanxo. Its interior, so far as 
its entrance hall and stairway are concerned, 
remains as it was when first built. 

The Rue Pere Pigne has a legend connected 
with it which is worth recounting. The Pere 
Pigne, or Pigna, as his name was in Catalan- 
Spanish days, was a cattle-herder in the upper 
valley of the Tet, beside the village of Llagone. 
"Weary of his lonely life he whispered to the 
rocks and rills his desire for a less rude calling 
elsewhere, and the river took him up in its 
arms and washed him incontinently down on 
to the lowland plain of Roussillon, and, by 
some occult means or other, suggested to the 
old man that his mission in life was to found 



From Perpignan to Spanish Frontier 115 



there a fertile, prosperous city. Tims Perpi- 
gnan came to be founded. 

There may be doubts as to the authenticity 
of the story, but there was enough of reality 
attached to it to have led the city fathers to 
name a street after the hero of the adventure. 

Since the demolishment of its walls Per- 
pignan has lost much of its mediaeval charac- 
ter, but nothing can take away the life and 
gaiety of its streets and boulevards, its shops, 
its hotels and cafes. Perpignan comes very 
near being the liveliest little capital of old 
France existing under the modern republic of 

to-day. 

The population is cosmopolitan, like that of 
Marseilles, and every aspect of it is pictur- 
esque. The vegetable sellers, the fruit mer- 
chants, the water and ice purveyors, all dark- 
eyed Catalan girls, are delightful in face, fig- 
ure and carriage. Their baggy white coiffes 
set off their dark complexions and jet black 
hair. The men of this race are more seri- 
ous when they are at business (they are gay 
enough at other times) and you may see 
twenty red onion or garlic dealers and never 
see a smile, whereas an orange seller, a woman 
or girl, always has her mouth open in a laugh 
and her headdress is always bobbing about; 



116 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

nothing about her is passive and life to her 
is a dream, though it is serious business to the 
men. 

The taste of the Catalans of Perpignan for 
bright colouring in their dress is akin to that 
of their brothers and sisters in Spain. The 
fact that both slopes of the Eastern Pyrenees 
were under the same domination up to the reign 
of Louis XIII may account for this. 

The Citadelle of Perpignan is closed to the 
general tourist. None may enter without per- 
mission from the military authorities, and that, 
for a stranger, is difficult to obtain. The great 
gateway to the Citadelle is a marvel of orig- 
inality with its four archaic caryatides. Within 
is the site of the ancient palace of the kings of 
Majorca, but the primitive fragments have 
been rebuilt into the later works of Louis XI, 
Charles V and Vauban until to-day it is but a 
species of fortress, and not at all like a great 
domestic establishment such as one usually rec- 
ognizes by the name of palace. 

The ]5glise de la Real, beside the Citadelle, 
was built in the fourteenth century and is cele- 
brated for the council held here in 1408 by the 
Anti-Pope, Pierre de Luna. 

There are some bibliographical gems in Per- 
pignan 's Bibliotheque which would make a new- 



From Perpignan to Spanish Frontier 117 

world collector envious. There are numerous 
rare incunabula? and precious manuscripts, the 
most notable being the " Missel de I'Abbaye 
d 'Aries en Vallespir " (Xllth century) and the 
** Missel de la Confrere," illustrated with min- 
iatures (XVth century), worthy, each of them, 
to be ranked with King Rene's ** Book of 
Hours " at Aix so far as mere beauty goes. 

The habituated French traveller connects 
rilettes with Tours, the Cannebiere with Mar- 
seilles, Les Lices with Aries, and, with Per- 
pignan, the platanes — great plane - trees, 
planted in a double line and forming one of 
the most remarkable promenades, just beyond 
the Castillet, that one has ever seen. It is a 
Prado, a Corso, and a Rambla all in one. 

The Carnival de Perpignan is as brilliant a 
fete as one may see in any Spanish or Italian 
city, where such celebrations are classic, and 
this Allee des Platanes is then at its gayest. 

Another of the specialties of Perpignan is 
the micocoulier, or '' bois de Perpignan/' some- 
thing better suited for making whip handles 
than any other wood known. Each French city 
has its special industry; it may elsewhere be 
berets, sabots, truffles, pork-pies or sausages, 
but here it is whips. 

Perpignan has given two great men to the 



118 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

world, Jean Blanca and Hyacinthe Eigaud. 
Jean Blanca, Bourgeois de Perpignan, was first 
consul of the city when Louis XI besieged it 
in 1475. His son had been captured by the be- 
siegers and word was sent that he would be 
put to death if the gates were not opened forth- 
with. The courageous consul replied simply 
that the ties of blood and paternal love are not 
great enough to make one a traitor to his God, 
his king and his native land. His son was, 
in consequence, massacred beneath his very 
eyes. 

Hyacinthe Eigaud was a celebrated painter, 
born at Perpignan in the eighteenth century. 
His talents were so great that he was known 
as the Van Dyck frangais. 

Canet is a sort of seaside overflow of Per- 
pignan, a dozen kilometres away on the shores 
of the Mediterranean. On the way one passes 
the scant, clumsy remains of the old twelfth- 
century Chateau Eoussillon, now remodelled 
into a little ill-assorted cluster of houses, a 
chapel and a storehouse. The circular tower, 
really a svelt and admirable pile, is all that 
remains of the chateau of other days, the last 
vestige of the dignity that once was Euscino's, 
the ancient capital of the Comte de Eoussillon. 

At Canet itself there are imposing ruins, sit- 



118 Old Navarre and the - > m^ Provinces 



world, Jean Blanca aud Hya^'iatlie Rigaud. 

Jean Blanca, Bourgeois de Perpignan. was first 

consul of tbe city when Louis XI besieged it 

in 1475 His sou bad been captured by the be- 

sir;^ vord was sent that he would be 

y>ut: >.. M .Jii it" the gates were not opened forth- 

--"'■ '"rse courageous consul replied simply 

lies of blood and paternal love are not 

ough to make one a traitor to his God, 

ing and his native land. His son was, 

;!. consequence, massacred beneath his very 

*^^'^^* /IT"^'^^^^ ROUS5ILLON 
HyacM bc Blguiid waa a ce lebrated painter, 

bom at Perpignan in the eighteenth century. 

His talents were so great that he was known 

as the Van Dyck frangais. 

Canet is a sort of seaside overflow of Per- 
pignan, a dozen kilometres away on the shores 
of the Mediterranean. On the way one passes 
the scant, clumsy remains of the old twelfth- 
centp^'v fiiaf.'-ii Tf.,i>^si'1< ^- irw remodelled 
into of houses, a 

chapel and a storehouse. The circular tower, 
really a svelt and admirable pile, is all that 
remains of the chMeau of other days, the last 
vestige of the dignity that once was Ruscino's, 
the ancient capital of the Comte de Roussillon. 

At Canet itself there are imposing ruins, sit- 



From Perpignan to Spanish Frontier 119 

ting hard by the sea, of centuries of regal splen- 
dour, though now they rank only as an attrac- 
tion of the humble little village of Roussillon. 
The belfry of Canet's humble church looks like 
a little brother of that of '' Perpignan-le- 
Rouge " and points plainly to the fact that 
styles in architecture are as distinctly local as 
are fashions in footwear. 

Canet to-day is a watering place for the peo- 
ple of Perpignan, but in the past it was vener- 
ated by the holy hermits and monks of Rous- 
sillon for much the same attractions that it 
to-day possesses. Saint Galdric, patron of the 
Abbey of Saint Martin du Canigou, and, later. 
Saints Abdon and Sennen were frequenters of 
the spot. 

Rivesaltes, practically a suburb of Perpi- 
gnan, a dozen kilometres north, is approached 
by as awful a road as one will find in France. 
The town will not suggest much or appeal 
greatly to the passing traveller, unless indeed 
he stops there for a little refreshment and has 
a glass of muscat, that sweet, sticky^ liquor 
which might well be called simply raisin juice. 
It is a '^ sperialifc du pays/' and really should 
be tasted, though it may be had an;^"where in 
the neighbourhood. It is a wine celebrated 
throughout France. 



120 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

At Salces, on the Route Nationale, just be- 
yond Narbonne and Rivesaltes, is an old forti- 
fication built by Charles V on one of his ambi- 
tious pilgrimages across France, A great 
square of masonry, with a donjon tower in the 
middle and with walls of great thickness, it 
looks formidable enough, but modern Krupp 
or Creusot cannon would doubtless make short 
work of it. 

A dozen kilometres to the south of Perpi- 
gnan is Elne, an ancient cathedral town. From 
afar one admires the sky line of the town and 
a nearer acquaintance but increases one's pleas- 
ure and edification. 

The Phoenicians, or the Iberians, founded the 
city, perhaps, five hundred years before the 
beginning of the Christian era, and Hannibal 
in his passage of the Pyrenees rested here. An- 
other fiive hundred years and it had a Roman 
emperor for its guardian, and Constantine, who 
would have made it great and wealthy, sur- 
rounded it with ramparts and built a donjon 
castle, of which unfortunately not a vestige 
remains. 

Ages came and went, and the city dwindled 
in size, and the church grew poor with it, until 
at last, in 1601, Pope Clement VIII (a French 
Pope, by the way) authorized its bishop to 



From Perpignan to Spanish Frontier 121 

move to Perpignan, where indeed the see has 
been established ever since. 

Of the past feudal greatness of Elne only a 
fragmentary rampart and the fortified Portes 
de Collioure and Perpignan remain. The rest 
must be taken on faith. Nevertheless, Elne is 
a place to be omitted from no man's itinerary 
in these parts. 

The great wealth and beauty of Elne's ca- 
thedral cannot be recounted here. They would 
require a monograph to themselves. Little by 
little much has been taken from it, however, 
until only the glorious fabric remains. To cite 
an example, its great High Altar, made of 
beaten silver and gold, was, under the will of 
the canons of the church themselves, in the 
time of Louis XV, sent to the mint at Perpi- 
gnan and coined up into good current ecus for 
the benefit of some one, history does not state 
whom. 

From the beautiful cloister, in the main a 
tenth-century work, and the largest and most 
beautiful in the Pyrenees, one steps out on a 
little pen-on when another ravishing Mediter- 
ranean panorama unfolds itself. There are 
others as fine; that from the platform of the 
chateau at Carcassonne; from the terrace at 
Pau; or from the citadel-fortress church at 



122 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

Beziers. This at Elne, however, is the equal 
of any. Below are the plains of Eoussillon and 
Vallespir, red and green and gold like a tapis 
d' Orient, with the Alberes mountains for a 
background, while away in the distance, in a 
soft glimmering haze of a blue horizon, is the 
Mediterranean. It is all truly beautiful. 

In the direction of the Spanish frontier Ar- 
geles-sur-Mer comes next. It has historic value 
and its inhabitants number three thousand, 
though few recognize this, or have even heard 
its name. As a matter of fact, it might have 
become one of the great maritime cities of the 
eastern slope of the Pyrenees except that fickle 
fate ruled otherwise. 

The name of Argeles-sur-Mer figured first 
in a document of Lothaire, King of France, in 
981 ; and, three centuries later, it was the meet- 
ing-place between the kings of Majorca and 
Aragon and the princes of Eoussillon, when, 
at the instigation of Philippe le Bel, an expir- 
ing treaty was to be renewed. 

The city at that time belonged to the Roy- 
aume de Majorque, and Pierre IV of Aragon, 
in the Chateau d'Amauros, defended it through 
a mighty siege. 

Five hundred metres above the sea, and to 
be seen to-day, was also the Tour des Pujols, 



From Perpignan to Spanish Frontier 123 

another fortification of the watch-tower or 
block-house variety, frequently seen through- 
out the Pyrenees. 

At the taking of Roussillon by Louis XI, 
Argeles-sur-Mer was in turn in possession of 
the King of Aragon and the King of France. 
Under Louis XIII the city surrendered with no 
resistance to the Marechal de la Meilleraye; 
and later fell again to the Spaniards, becoming 
truly French in 1646. 

It was a Ville Roy ale with a right of vote in 
the Catalonian parliament, and enjoyed great 
privileges up to the Revolution, a fact which 
is plainly demonstrated by the archives of the 
city preserved at the local Mairie. 

In 1793 the Spanish flag again flew from its 
walls; but the brave Dugommier, the real sa- 
viour of this part of the Midi of France in revo- 
lutionary times, regained the city for the French 
for all time. 

Five kilometres south of Argeles-sur-Mer is 
Collioure, the ancient Port Illiberries, the sea- 
port of Elne. It is one of the most curiously 
interesting of all the coast towns of Roussillon. 
Here one sees the best of the Catalan types 
of Roussillon, gentle maidens, coiffe on head, 
carrying water jugs with all the grace that 
nature gave them, and rough, hardy, red- 



124 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

capped sailors as salty in their looks and talk 
as the sea itself. 

Collionre is not a grande ville. Even now 
it is a mere fishing port, and no one thinks of 
doing more than passing through its gates and 
out again. Nevertheless its historic interest 
endures. From the fact that Roman coins and 
pottery have been found here, its bygone posi- 
tion has been established as one of prominence. 
In the seventh century it was in the hands of 
the Visigoths and three centuries later Lo- 
thaire, King of France, gave permission to 
Wifred, Gomte de Roussillon et d'Empories, 
to develop and exploit the ancient settlement 
anew. 

Here, in 1280, Guillaume de Puig d'Orphila 
founded a Dominican convent; and it is the 
]6glise de Gollioure of to-day, sitting snugly 
by the entrance to the little port, that formed 
the church of the old conventual establishment, 
In 1415 the Anti-Pope Benoit XIII, Pierre de 
Luna, took ship here, frightened from France 
by the menaces of Sigismond. Louis XI, when 
he sought to reduce Eoussillon, would have 
treated Gollioure hardly, but so earnest and 
skilful was its defence that it escaped the indig- 
nities thrust upon Elne and Perpignan. The 
kings of Spain for a time dominated the city, 



3HUOIJJO 



Id 



■-s^.v 



Old i^avarre and Vn^- ""^ \q Provinces 



capped sailors as salty in their looks and talk 
aa the sea itself. 

Collioure is nut a grande iiUr- Even now 
it is a mere iif^iiing port, and no one thinks of 
doing more than passing through its gates and 
out again. Nevertheless its historic interest 
endures From the fact that Roman coins and 
pott •; iiave been found here, its bygone posi- 
tioii : as been established as one of prominence. 
T i the seventh century it was in the hands of 
;J ( Visigoths and three centuries later Lo- 
tliaire, King of France, gave permission to 
Wifred, Comte de Roussillon et d'Empories, 
to develop an0E§^^^^e ancient settlement 
anew. 

Here, in 1280, Guillaume de Puig d'Orphila 
founded a Dominican convent; and it is the 
figlise de Collioure of to-day, sitting snugly 
by the <• it ranee to the little port, that formed 
the chn: 'h of the ' Mtablishment, 

Tn 1415 the Anti-( ; 11 T. Pierre de 

TiUna, took -Irp here "rl from France 

by the menan^s of Sip ouis XI, when 

he sought to reduce !>ou«slllon, would have 
treated Collioure hardjy, but so earnest and 
skilful was its defence thai it escaped the indig- 
nities thrust upon Eine and Perpignan. The 
kings of Spain for a time dominated the city, 



Prom Perpignan to Spanish Frontier 125 

and during their rule the fortress known to-day 
as the Fort St. Elne was constructed. 

One of the red-letter incidents of Collioure 
was the shipwreck off its harbour of the In- 
fanta of Spain, as she was en route by sea 
from Barcelona to Naples in 1584. A galley 
slave carried the noble lady on his shoulders 
as he swam to shore. News of the adventure 
came to the Bishop of Elne who was also plain 
Jean Teres, a Catalan and governor of the 
province; and he caused the unfortunate lady 
to be brought to the episcopal palace for fur- 
ther care. In return the princess used her in- 
fluence at court and had the prelate made Arch- 
bishop of Tarragona, viceroy of Catalonia, 
and counsellor to the king of Spain. Of the 
for gat who really saved the lady, the chroni- 
clers are blank. One may hope that he obtained 
some recompense, or at least liberty. 

There are numerous fine old Gothic and Ee- 
naissance houses here, with carved statues in 
niches, hanging lamps, great bronze knockers, 
and iron hinges, interesting enough to incite 
the enw of a curio-collector. 

Collioure has a great fete on the sixteenth 
of August of each year, the Fete de Saint 
Vincent. There is much processioning going 
and coming from the sea in ships and gaily 



126 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

decorated boats, and after all fireworks on the 
water. The religions significance of it all is 
lost in the general rejoicing; but it's a most 
impressive sight nevertheless. 

Oollionre is also famous for its fishing. The 
sardines and anchovies taken offshore from. 
Collioure are famous all over France and Rus- 
sia where gastronomy is an art. Two classic 
excursions are to be made from Collioure ; one 
is to the hermitage of Notre Dame de Consola- 
tion, and the other to the Abbey of Valbonne. 
The first is simply a ruined hermitage seated 
on a little verdure-clad plateau high above the 
vineyards and olive orchards of the plain; but 
it is remarkably attractive, and it takes no 
great wealth of imagination to people the court- 
yard with the holy men of other days. Now its 
ruined, gray walls are set off with lichens, vines 
and rose-trees ; and it is as quiet and peaceful 
a retreat from the world and its nerve-racking 
conventions as may be found. 

The Abbey of Valbonne is practically the 
counterpart of Notre Dame de Consolation so 
far as unworldliness goes. It was founded in 
1242, but left practically deserted from the fif- 
teenth century, after the invasion of Roussillon 
by Louis XI. The Tour Massane, a great guar- 
dian watch-tower, dominates the ruins and 



.' /,«/,' 




Chateau J'Ultrera 



From Perpignan to Spanish Frontier 127 

marks the spot where Yolande, a queen of Ara- 
gon, lies buried. 

Inland from Collioure, perhaps five kilome- 
tres in a bee line, but a dozen or more by a 
sinuous mountain path, high up almost on the 
crest of the Alberes, is the chateau fort of 
Ultrera. Its name alone, without further de- 
scription, indicates its picturesqueness, prob- 
ably derived from the castrum vuUurarium, or 
nest of vultures of Eoman times. What the 
history of this stronghold may have been in 
later mediaeval times no one knows ; but it was 
a Roman outpost in the year 1073 and later a 
Visigoth stronghold. It was a fortress guard- 
ing the route to and from Spain via Narbonne, 
Salies, Ruscino, Elne, Saint Andre, Pave and 
so on to the Col de la Carbossiere. Now this 
road is only a mule track and all the consid- 
erable traffic between the two countries passes 
via the Col de Perthus to the westward. 

The peak upon which sits Ultrera culminates 
at a height of five hundred and seventeen me- 
tres, and rises abruptly from the seashore plain 
in most spectacular fashion. The ruins are but 
ruins to be sure, but the grim suggestion of 
what they once stood for is very evident. En 
route from Perpignan or Collioure one passes 
the Ermitage de Notre Dame de Chateau, for- 



128 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

merly a place of pious pilgrimage, and where 
travellers may still find refreshment. 

Banynls-snr-Mer is the last French station 
on the railway leading into Spain. At Banyuls 
even a keen observer of men and things would 
find it hard, if he had been plumped down here 
in the middle of the night, to tell, on awaking 
in the morning, whether he was in Spain, Italy 
or Africa. The country round about is a blend 
of all three; with, perhaps, a little of Greece. 
It possesses a delicious climate and a flora al- 
most as sub-tropical and as varied as that of 
Madeira. 

No shadow hangs over Banyuls-sur-Mer. 
The sea scintillates at its very doors; and, 
opposite, lie the gracious plains and valleys 
which reach to the crowning crests of the Pyre- 
nees in the southwest. It is an ancient bourg, 
and its history recurs again and again in that 
of Eoussillon. Turn by turn one reads in the 
pages of its chroniclers the names of the Comtes 
d 'Empories-Roussillon, and the Kois de Ma- 
jorque et d'Aragon. 

Lothaire and the then reigning Comte d'Em- 
pories came to an arrangement in the tenth cen- 
tury whereby the hill above the town was to 
be fortified by the building of a chateau or mas. 
This was done; but the seaport never pros- 



From Perpignan to Spanish Frontier 129 

pered greatly until the union of France and 
Roussillon, when its people, whose chief source 
of prosperity had been a contraband trade, took 
their proper place in the affairs of the day. 

The National Convention subsequently for- 
mulated a decree that the " Banyulais ay ant 
bien merite de la patrie," and ordered that an 
obelisk be erected commemorative of the capit- 
ulation of the Spaniards. For long years this 
none too lovely monument was unbuilt,^ 
'' Banyuls est si loin de Paris/' said the hab- 
itant in explanation — but to-day it stands in 
all its ugliness on the quay by the waterside. 



CHAPTER VII 

THE CANIGOU AND ANDOEEA 

There is a section of the Pyrenees that may 
well be called " the unknown Pyrenees." The 
main chain has been travelled, explored and 
exploited for long years, but the Canigou, ly- 
ing between the rivers Tet and Tech, has only 
come to be known since half a dozen years 
ago when the French Alps Club built a chalet- 
hotel on the plateau of Cortalets. This is at 
an altitude of 2,200 metres, from which point 
it is a two hour and a half climb to the summit. 

All the beauties of the main chain of the 
Pyrenees are here in this side-long spur just 
before it plunges its forefoot into the blue 
waters of the Mediterranean. It is majestic, 
and full of sweet flowering valleys stretching 
off northward and eastward. Unless one would 
conquer the Andes or the Himalayas he will 
find the Canigou, Puig, Campiardos, or Puig- 
mal, from eight to ten thousand feet in height, 
all he will care to undertake without embracing 
mountaineering as a profession. 

130 



The Canigou and Andorra 131 

The great charm of the Canigou is its com- 
paratively isolated grandeur; for the moun- 
tains slope down nearly to sea level, before they 
rise again and form the main chain. 

A makeshift road runs up as far as the Club's 
chalet, but walking or mule back are the only 
practicable means of approach. To-day it is 
all primitive and unspoiled, but some one in the 
neighbourhood has been to Switzerland and 
learned the rudiments of '' exploitation " and 
every little while threatens a funicular railway 
— and a tea room. 

In the chalet are twenty-five beds ready for 
occupancy, at prices ranging from a franc and 
a half to two francs and a half in summer. In 
winter the establishment is closed; but those 
venturesome spirits who would undertake the 
climb may get a key to the snow-buried door 
at Perpignan. 

One may dispute the fact that Canigou is as 
fine as Mont Blanc, Mount McKinley or Popo- 
catepetl, but its three thousand majestic metres 
of tree-grown height are quite as pleasing and 
varied in their outline as any other peak on 
earth. 

The Savoyard says: " Ce n'est tout de meme 
pas le Mont Blanc avec ses 4,800 metres/' and 



132 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

you admit it, but one doesn't size up a moun- 
tain for its mere mathematical valuation. 

The Canigou stands out by itself, and that 
is why its majesty is so impressive. This is 
also true of Mont Ventoux in Provence, but how 
many tourists of the personally conducted or- 
der realize there are any mountains in Europe 
save the Alps and its kingly Mont Blanc — 
which they fondly but falsely believe is in Swit- 
zerland. 

High above, as the pilgrims of to-day wind 
their way among the moss-grown rocks of the 
mountainside, rises the antique Eomano-By- 
zantine tower and ruins of the old Abbey of 
Saint Martin. 

Built perilously on a rocky peak, the abbey 
is a regular eagle's nest in fact and fancy. In 
grandiose melancholy it sits and regards the 
sweeping plains of Eoussillon as it did nearly 
a thousand years ago. The storms of winter, 
and the ravages incident to time have used it 
rather badly. It has been desecrated and pil- 
laged, too, but all this has been stopped; and 
the abbey church has, with restoration and care, 
again taken its place among the noble religious 
monuments of France. 

At the beginning of the eleventh century the 
Comte de Cerdagne and Conflent, and his wife 




The Pilgrimage to St. Martin 



The Canigou and Andorra 133 

Guifred, gave this eerie site, at an altitude of 
considerably more than a thousand metres 
above the sea, to a community of Benedictine 
monks for the purpose of founding a monas- 
tery. Ten years later the Bishop Oliba, of 
Vic-d'Osona in Catalonia, consecrated the 
church and put it under the patronage of Saint 
Martin; and a Bull of Pope Sergius IV, dated 
1011 and preserved in the Musee at Perpignan, 
confirmed the act and granted the institution 
the privilege of being known as a mitred abbey, 
bestowing on its governor the canonical title. 
It is this antique monastery which rises to-day 
from its ruins. It has been sadly robbed in 
times past of columns, capitals and keystones, 
and many a neighbouring farm-house bears 
evidence of having, in part, been built up from 
its ruins. 

The yearly Catalan pilgrimage to St. Martin 
de Canigou and the services held in the ruined 
old abbey are two remarkably impressive 
sights. The soft, dulcet Catalan speech seems 
to lend itself readily to the mother tongue of 
Latin in all its purity. A Spanish poet of some 
generations ago, Jacinto Verdaguer — called 
the Mistral-espagnol — wrote a wonderfully 
vivid epic, ** Canigou," with, naturally, the old 
abbev in the centre of the stage. 



134 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

In Verdaguer's charming poem, written in 
the Catalan tongue, the old abbey tower is 
made to moan: — " Campanes ja no tinch " — 
" Bells I have no longer." This is no longer 
true, for in 1904 the omnific ' ' Eveque de Cani- 
gou " (really the Bishop of Perpignan) caused 
to be hung in the old crenelated tower a new 
peal, and to-day there rings forth from the 
campanile such reverberating melody as has 
not been known for centuries: '' Campanes ja 
tinch " — ^^ I have my hell; Oliba has come to 
life again; he has brought them back to me." 

The present Bishop of Perpignan, Monsei- 
gneur de Carsalade du Pont, in recent years 
took steps to acquire proprietorship in the 
abbey church, that it might be safe from fur- 
ther depredations, and solicited donations 
throughout his diocese of Perpignan and Cata- 
lonia for the enterprise. 

In 1902, this prelate and his " faithful " 
from all the Catalan country, in Spain as well 
as France, made the Fete de Saint Martin 
(11th November) memorable. To give a poetic 
and sentimental importance to this occasion 
the bishop invited the " Consistoire " of the 
^' Jeux Floraux " of Barcelona to hold their 
forty-fourth celebration here at the same time. 

On a golden November sunlit day, amid 



The Canigou and Andorra 135 



the ring of mountains all resplendent with a 
brilliant autumn verdure, this grandest of all 
Fetes of St. Martin was held. In the midst 
of the throng were the Bishop of Perpignan in 
his pontifical robes, and the mitred Abbe de 
la Trappe — a venerable monk with snowy 
beard and vestments. At the head of the pro- 
cession floated the reconstituted banner of the 
Comte Guifred, bearing the inscription '' Ckti- 
fre par la gracia de Dieu Comte de Cerdanya 
y de Conflent." The local clergy from all over 
Roussillon and Catalonia were in line, and 
thousands of lay pilgrims besides. 

At the church, when the procession finally 
arrived, was celebrated a Pontifical Mass. At 
the conclusion of this religious ceremony the 
Catalans of Barcelona took possession of the 
old basilica and the '* fete litter aire " com- 
menced. 

The emotion throughout both celebrations 
was profound, and at the end there broke out 
seemingly interminable applause and shouts of 
*' Vive la Catalogue! " " Vive le Roussillon/* 
" Vive Barcelone! " " Vive Perpignan! *' 

Back of the Canigou, between it and the main 
chain of the Pyrenees, is the smiling valley of 
the Tech and Vallespir. 

The route from Perpignan into Spain passes 



136 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

by Le Boulou, on the Tech. If one is en route 
to Barcelona, and is not an automobilist, let 
him make his way to Le Boulou, which is really 
an incipient watering-place, and take the dili- 
gence up over the Col de Perthus and down 
into Spain on the other side. The hasty trav- 
ellers may prefer the " Paris-Barcelone Ex- 
press," but they will know not the joy of travel, 
and the entrance into Spain through the cut 
of Cerbere is most unlovely. 

France has fortified the Col de Perthus, but 
Spain only guards her interests by her cara- 
hiniers and douaniers. The little bourg of Per- 
thus consists of but one long main street, 
formed in reality by the " Route Internatio- 
nale, ' ' of which one end is French and the other, 
the Calle Mayor, is Spanish. 

Above the village is Fort Bellegarde. It 
looks imposing, but if guns could get near 
enough it would doubtless fall in short order. 
It was built by Vauban under Louis XIV, in 
1679, on a mamelon nearly fifteen hundred feet 
above the pass, and its situation is most com- 
manding. To the west was another gateway 
into Spain, once more frequented than the 
Col de Perthus, but it has been made imprac- 
ticable by the military strategists as a part of 
the game of war. 



The Canigou and Andorra 137 

Just beyond Le Boulou is Ceret, a little town 
at an elevation of a couple of hundred metres 
above the sea. 

Ceret 's bridge has been attributed to the 
Romans, and to the devil. The round loophole, 
on either side of the great arch, is supposed 
to have been a malicious afterthought of the 
engineers who built the bridge to head off the 
evil influences of the devil who set them to the 
task. The application is difficult to follow, and 
the legend might as well apply to the eyes 
painted on the bows of a Chinese junk. As a 
matter of record the bridge was built in 1321, 
by whom will perhaps never be known. 

Amelie-les-Bains is ten kilometres higher up 
in the valley of Tech, and has become a thermal 
station of repute, due entirely to the impetus 
first given to it by the spouse of France's '' Cit- 
izen King " in 1840, whose name it bears. 

Bagneres-de-Luchon, or more familiarly Lu- 
chon, is called the queen of Pyrenean watering- 
places. If this is so Amelie-les-Bains is cer- 
tainly the princess, with its picturesque ring of 
mountain background, and its guardian sentinel 
the Canigou rising immediately in front. It 
enjoys a climate the softest in all the Pyrenees, 
a sky exempt of all the vicissitudes of the sea- 
sons, and a winter without freezing. 



138 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

Just north of Amelie-les-Bains is the little 
village of Palada. It sits halfway up the moun- 
tainside, beneath the protection of a once for- 
midable chateau, to-day in ruins, its gray green 
stones crumbling before the north wind which 
blows here in the winter months with a sever- 
ity that blows knots from their holes, — at 
least this is the local description of it, though 
the writer has never experienced the like. The 
inhabitants of the poor little village of Palada 
got hot-headed in 1871, when Paris was under 
the Commune, and had a little affair of their 
own on the same order. 

The whole valley of the Tech, being a near 
neighbour of Spain, has that hybrid French- 
Spanish aspect which gives a distinctive shade 
of life and colour to everything about. The 
red cap of the Catalan is as often seen as the 
blue hat of the Languedooian. 

At Arles-sur-Tech, not for a moment to be 
confounded with Arles-en-Provence, is a re- 
markable series of architectural monuments, 
as well as a charming old church which dates 
back to the twelfth century, and a Poman sar- 
cophagus which mysteriously fills itself with 
water, and performs miracles on the thirtieth 
of each July. Within the church are the relics 
of the Christian martyrs, Abdon and Sennen, 



The Canigou and Andorra 139 

brought from Rome in the ninth century. The 
charming little mountain town is at once an 
historic and a religious shrine. 

High up in the valley of the Tech is Prats- 
de-Mollo, with its guardian fortress of La- 
garde high above on the flank of a hill. This 
tiny fortress looks hardly more than a block- 
house to-day, but in its time it was ranked as 
one of the best works of Vauban. To keep it 
company, one notes the contrasting ruins of the 
feudal Chateau de Peille hard by. 

The town itself is fortified by a surrounding 
rampart, still well preserved, with great gates 
and pepper-box towers well distributed around 
its circumference. In olden times these ram- 
parts held off the besieging kings of Aragon, 
but to-day they would quickly succumb to mod- 
ern guns and ammunition. 

Along with its bygone attractions Prats de 
Mollo is trying hard to become a resort, and 
there are hotels of a modernity and excellence 
which are surprising for a small town of twenty- 
five hundred inhabitants, so far off the beaten 
track. In spite of this no amount of improve- 
ments and up-to-date ideas will ever eradicate 
the medieval aspect of the place, unless the 
walls themselves are razed. Its churches, too, 
are practically fortresses, like those of its 



140 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

neighbour Aries, and the whole aspect of the 
region is warlike. 

The principal church, which dominates the 
city with its great Roman tower, is a remark- 
able construction in more ways than one. It 
is a veritable church militant, for from its great 
crenelated tower one may pass by an under- 
ground vaulted gallery to and from Fort La- 
garde, There is no such view to be had up and 
down the valley and off towards the Spanish 
frontier as from its platform. The interior is 
most curious; more Spanish than French in 
its profuse application of gold and tinsel. A 
gigantic r Stable of the time of Louis XIV is 
the chief artistic accessory within. 

There is no carriage road from Prats into 
Spain, but a mule track leads to the Spanish 
village of Camprodon. 

In a little corner of the Pyrenees, between 
Vallespir and the valley of the Tech — where 
lie Ceret, Aries and Prats-de-Mollo — and the 
valley of the Tet, around the western flank of 
the Canigou, is the Cerdagne, a little district 
of other days, known to-day only to travellers 
to or from Perpignan or Quillan into Andorra, 
via TTospitalet or Bourg-Madame. Yauban for- 
tified the Col de la Perche on the Spanish bor- 
der to protect the three districts ceded to Louis 



The Canigou and Andorra 141 

XIII by Spain — Cerdagne, Capcir and Con- 
flent. 

Almost the whole of the Cerdagne is moun- 
tains and valleys; and until one reaches the 
valley of the Tet, at Villefranche or Prades, 
one is surrounded by a silent strangeness which 
is conducive to the thought of high ideals and 
the worship of nature, but drearily lonesome 
to one who likes to study men and manners. 
This is about the wildest, ruggedest, and least 
spoiled corner of France to-day. Nothing else 
in the Pyrenees or the Alps can quite approach 
it for solitude. 

Villefranche — Conflent and Barcelonnette 
in the Basses-Alpes might be sisters, so like 
are they in their make-up and surroundings. 
Each have great fortresses with parapets of 
brick, and great stairways of ninety steps lead- 
ing up from the lower town. The surrounding 
houses — half-fortified, narrow-windowed, and 
bellicose-looking — stand as grim and silent to- 
day as if they feared imminent invasion. 

Far away in the historic past Villefranche 
was founded by a Comte de Cerdagne who sur- 
rounded himself with a little band of adven- 
turers who were willing to turn their hand to 
fighting, smuggling or any other profitable 
business. 



142 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

Vauban took this old foundation and sur- 
rounded it with walls anew, and gave the pres- 
ent formidable aspect to the place, building its 
ramparts of the red marble or porphyry ex- 
tracted from the neighbouring mountains. Its 
naturally protected position, set deep in a rocky 
gorge, gave added strength to the fortress. 

Louis XIV, in one of his irrational moments, 
built a chateau here and proposed living in it, 
but fate ruled otherwise. About the only con- 
nection of the king with it was when he chained 
up four women in a dungeon. The chains and 
rings in the walls may be seen to-day. 

Villefranche, its fortifications and its cha- 
teau are admirable examples of the way of 
doing things in Roussillon between the tenth 
and fourteenth centuries ; and the town is typ- 
ically characteristic of a feudal bourg, albeit 
it has no very splendid or magnificent appoint- 
ments. 

Prades, just east of Villefranche, dates its 
years from the foundation of Charles-le- 
Chauve in 844, and has a fourteenth and fif- 
teenth century chateau (in ruins) affection- 
ately referred to by the habitant as ' ' La Reine 
Marguerite.^' Assiduous research fails how- 
ever to connect either Marguerite de France 




Villefranche 



The Canigou and Andorra 143 

or Marguerite de Navarre with it or its his- 
tory. 

Near Villefranche is the little paradise of 
Vernet. It contains both a new and an old town, 
each distinct one from the other, but forming 
together a delightful retreat. It has a chateau, 
too, which is something a good deal better than 
a ruin, though it was dismantled in the seven- 
teenth century. 

Vernet has a regular population of twelve 
hundred, and frequently as many more vis- 
itors. This is what makes the remarkable com- 
bination of the new and the old. The ancient 
town is built in amphitheatre form on a rocky 
hillside above which rises the parish church 
and the chateau which, since its partial demoli- 
tion, has lately been restored. The new Ver- 
net, the thermal resort, dates from 1879, when 
it first began to be exploited as a watering- 
place, and took the name of Vernet-les-Bains 
for use in the guide books and railway time- 
tables. Naturally this modern-built town with 
its hotels, its casino and its bath houses, is less 
lovely and winsome than its older sister on the 
hill. There are twelve springs here, nnd some 
of them were known to the Romans in the tenth 
century. 

On towards the frontier and the mountain 



144 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

road into the tiny Pyrenean state of Andorra 
is Mont Louis. Just before Mont Louis, on 
the main road leading out from Perpignan, one 
passes below the walls of the highest fortress 
in France. 

Within a couple of kilometres of Mont Louis, 
at the little village of Planes, is one of the most 
curious churches in France. It is what is 
known as a '' round churchj" and there are not 
many like it in or out of France, if one excepts 
the baptistries at Pisa and Eavenna, and at 
Aix-en-Provence, and Charlemagne's church at 
Aix-la-Chapelle. This ifiglise de Planes is 
more like a mosque than a church in its out- 
lines, and its circular walls with its curious 
mission-like bell-tower (surely built by some 
Spanish padre) present a ground plan and a 
sky line exceedingly bizarre. 

Beyond Mont Louis and close under the 
shadow of Spain is Bourg-Madame. A pecul- 
iar interest attaches to Bourg-Madame by 
reason of the fact that it is a typical Franco- 
Spanish frontier town, a mixture of men and 
manners of the two nations. It sits on one 
side of the tiny river Sevre, which marks the 
frontier at this point, a river so narrow that 
a plank could bridge it, and the comings and 
goings of French and Spanish travellers across 



The Canigou and Andorra 145 

this diminutive bridge will suggest many 
things to a writer of romantic fiction. Bourg- 
Madame is a good locale for a novel, and 
plenty of plots can be had ready-made if one 
will but gossip with the French and Spanish 
gendarmes hanging about, or the driver of the 
diligence who makes the daily round between 
Bourg-Madame and Puigcerda in Spain. 

In 1905 there was held a great fete at Bourg- 
Madame and Puigcerda, in celebration of the 
anniversary of the signing of the Franco-Span- 
ish Convention of 1904, relative to the Trans- 
Pyrenean railways. It was all very practical 
and there was very little romance about it 
though it was a veritable fete day for all the 
mountaineers. 

The mayors from both the French and Span- 
ish sides of the frontier, and the municipal 
councillors and other prominent persons from 
Barcelona met at the baths of Escalde, at an 
altitude of fourteen hundred metres. M. Del- 
casse, the French Minister of Foreign Affairs, 
described the various stages of Franco-Spanish 
relations leading up to the convention as to the 
Trans-Pyrenean railways, which he hoped to 
see rapidly constructed. He said that while 
in office he had done all in his power to unite 
France and Spain. " He drank to his dear 



146 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

friends of Spain, to tlie noble Spanish nation, 
to its young sovereign, who had only to show 
himself to the public to win universal sympa- 
thy, to the gracious queen, daughter of a great 
country, the friend of France, who never tired 
of formulating good wishes for the prosperity 
and grandeur of valiant Spain." After the 
fetes on the French side, the party crossed the 
frontier and continued this international fes- 
tival at Puigcerda. The fetes ended long after 
midnight, after a gala performance at the the- 
atre, at which the Marseillaise and the Spanish 
national air were enthusiastically cheered. 

The French highroad turns northwest at 
Bourg-Madame, and via Porta and Porte and 
the Tour de Carol — perhaps a relic of the 
Moors, but more likely a reminder of Charle- 
magne, who chased them from these parts — 
one comes to Hospitalet, from which point one 
enters Andorra by crossing the main chain of 
the Pyrenees at the Col de Puymorins. 

'' A beggarly village," wrote a traveller of 
Hospitalet, just previous to the Revolution, 
'* with a shack of an inn that made me almost 
shrink. Some cutthroat figures were eating 
black bread, and their faces looked so much 
like galley-slaves that I thought I heard their 



The Canigou and Andorra 147 



chains rattle. I looked at their legs, but found 
them free." 

There's good material here for a novel of 
adventure, or was a hundred years ago, but 
now the still humble inn of Hospitalet is quiet 
and peaceful. 



The little republic of Andorra, hidden away 
in the fastnesses of the Pyrenees between 
France and Spain, its allegiance divided be- 
tween the Bishop of Urgel in Spain and the 
French Government, is a relic of mediaevalism 
which will probably never fall before the swift 
advance of twentieth century ideas of progress. 
At least it will never be over-run by automo- 
biles. 

From French or Spanish territory this little 
unknown land is to be reached by what is called 
a " route carrossable," but the road is so bad 
that the sure-footed little donkeys of the Pyre- 
nees are bv far the best means of locomotion 



148 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

unless one would go up on foot, a matter of 
twenty kilometres or more from Hospitalet in 
Spanish or Porte in French territory. 

This is a good place to remark that the 
donkeys of the Pyrenees largely come from 
Spain, but curiously enough the donkeys and 
mules of Spain are mostly bred in the Vendee, 
just south of the Loire, in France. 

The political status of Andorra is most pecul- 
iar, but since it has endured without interrup- 
tion (and this in spite of wars and rumours of 
war) for six centuries, it seems to be all that is 
necessary. 

A relic of the Middle Ages, Andorra- Viella, 
the city, and its six thousand inhabitants live 
in their lonesome retirement much as they did 
in feudal times, except for the fact that an oc- 
casional newspaper smuggled in from France 
or Spain gives a new topic of conversation. 

This paternal governmental arrangement 
which cares for the welfare of the people of 
Andorra, the city and the province, is the out- 
come of a treaty signed by Pierre d'Urg and 
Eoger-Bernard, the third Comte de Foix, giv- 
ing each other reciprocal rights. There's noth- 
ing very strange about this; it was common 
custom in the Middle Ages for lay and ecclesi- 
astical seigneurs to make such compacts, but 



The Canigou and Andorra 149 

the marvel is that it has endured so well with 
governments rising and falling all about, and 
grafters and pretenders and dictators ruling 
every bailiwick in which they can get a foot- 
hold. Feudal government may have had some 
bad features, but certainly the republics and 
democracies of to-day, to say nothing of abso- 
lute monarchies, have some, too. 

The ways of access between France and An- 
dorra are numerous enough; but of the eight 
only two — and those not all the way — are 
really practicable for wheeled traffic. The 
others are mere trails, or mule-paths. 

The people of Andorra, as might be inferred, 
are all ardent Catholics; and for a tiny coun- 
try like this to have a religious seminary, as 
that at Urgel, is remarkable of itself. 

Public instruction is of late making head- 
way, but half a century ago the shepherd and 
labouring population — perhaps nine-tenths of 
the whole — had little learning or indeed need 
for it. Their manners and customs are simple 
and severe and little has changed in modern 
life from that of their great-great-great-grand- 
fathers. 

Each family has a sort of a chief or official 
head, and the eldest son always looks for a wife 
among the families of Ins own class. Seldom, 



150 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

if ever, does the married son quit the paternal 
roof, so large households are the rule. In a 
family where there are only girls the eldest is 
the heir, and she may only marry with a cadet 
of another family by his joining his name with 
hers. Perhaps it is this that originally set the 
fashion for h;^T3henated names. 

The Andorrans are generally robust and well 
built; the maladies of more populous regions 
are practically unknown among them. This 
speaks much for the simple life! 

Costumes and dress are rough and simple 
and of heavy woollens, clipped from the sheep 
and woven on the spot. Public officers, the 
few representatives of officialdom who exist, 
alone make any pretence at following the fash- 
ions. The women occupy a very subordinate 
position in public affairs. They may not be 
present at receptions and functions and not 
even at mass when it is said by the bishop. 
Crime is infrequent, and simple, light punish- 
ments alone are inflicted. Things are not so 
uncivilized in Andorra as one might think ! 

In need all men may be called upon to serve 
as soldiers, and each head of a family must 
have a rifle and ball at hand at all times. In 
other words, he must be able to protect himself 



The Canigou and Andorra 151 

against marauders. This does away with the 
necessity of a large standing police force. 

Commerce and industry are free of all taxa- 
tion in Andorra, and customs dues apply on 
but few articles. For this reason there is not 
a very heavy tax on a people who are mostly 
cultivators and graziers. 

There is little manufacturing industry, as 
might be supposed, and what is made — save 
by hand and in single examples — is of the 
most simple character. *' Made in Germany " 
or '' Fabrique en Belgique " are the marks one 
sees on most of the common manufactured 
articles. '' Those terrible Germans ! " is a trite, 
but true saying. 

The Andorrans are a simple, proud, gullible 
people, who live to-day in the past, of the past 
and for the past; " Les vallees et souveraine- 
tes de VAndorre '' are to them to-day just what 
they always were — a little world of their own. 



CHAPTEE Vin 

THE HIGH VALLEY OF THE AUDE 

The Aude, rising close under the crest of the 
Pyrenees, flows down to the Mediterranean be- 
tween Narbonne and Beziers. It is one of the 
daintiest mountain streams imaginable as it 
flows down through the Gorges de St. Georges 
and by Axat and Quillan to Carcassonne, and 
the following simple lines by Auguste Baluffe 
describe it well. 

« Dans le fond des bleus horizons, 
Les villages ont des maisons 

Toutes blanches, 
Que Ton apergoit a tr avers 
Les bois, formant des rideaux verts 

De leurs branches." 

At Carcassonne the Aude joins that natural 
waterway of the Pyrenees, the Garonne, through 
the Canal du Midi. This great Canal-de-Deux- 
Mers, as it is often called, connecting with the 
Garonne at Toulouse, joins the Mediterranean 
at the Golfe des Lions, with the Atlantic at the 
Golfe de Gascogne, and serves in its course Car- 

162 



The High Valley of the Aude 153 

cassonne, Narbonne and Beziers. The Canal 
du Midi was one of the marvels of its time when 
built (1668), though it has since been super- 
seded by many others. It was one of the first 
masterpieces of the French engineers, and may 
have been the inspiration of De Lesseps in later 
years. 

Boileau in his ''Epitre au Eoi," said: — 

« J'entends d^ja fremir les deux mers 6tonn6es 
De voir leurs flots unis au pied de Pyr6n6es." 

South of Carcassonne and Limoux, just over 
'' the mountains blue " of which the old peas- 
ant sang, is St. Hilaire, the market town of 
a canton of eight hundred inhabitants. It is 
more than that. It is a mediaeval shrine of the 
first rank ; for it is the site of an abbey founded 
in the fifth or sixth century. This abbey was 
under the direct protection of Charlemagne in 
780, and he bestowed upon it " lettres de sauve- 
garde, which all were bound to respect. The 
monastery was secularized in 1748, but its thir- 
teenth-century church, half Romanesque and 
half Gothic, will ever remain as one of the best 
preserved relics of its age. For some inex- 
plicable reason its carved and cut stone is un- 
worn by the ravages of weather, and is as fresh 
and sharp in its outlines as if newly cut. 



154 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

Within is the tomb of St. Hilaire, the first 
bishop of Carcassonne. The sculpture of the 
tomb is of the ninth century, and it is well to 
know that the same thing seen in the Musee 
Cluny at Paris is but a reproduction. The 
original still remains here. The fourteenth- 
century cloister is a wonderful work of its kind, 
and this too in a region where this most artistic 
work abounds. 

One's entrance into Quillan by road is apt 
to be exciting. The automobile is no novelty 
in these days; but to run afoul of a five kilo- 
metre procession of peasant folk with all their 
traps, coming and going to a market town keeps 
one down to a walking pace. 

On the particular occasion when the author 
and artist passed this way, all the animals 
bought and sold that day at the cattle fair of 
Quillan seemed to be coming from the town. 
The little men who had them in tow were in- 
invariably good-natured, but everybody had a 
hard time in preventing horses, cows and sheep 
from bolting and dogs from getting run over. 
Finally we arrived; and a more well-appre- 
ciated haven we have never found. The town 
itself is quaint, picturesque and quite different 
from the tiny bourgs of the Pyrenees. It is in 
fact quite a city in miniature. Though Quillan 




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, ^S?- ^ ', J 



>w. 



jjn, .'! ./J> -I. A' ' 



4; ^.s^^'^/tt 







(JiiiU'itit Jc' Pity/diircns 



The High Valley of the Aude 155 

is almost a metropolis, everybody goes to bed 
by ten o'clock, when the lights of the cafes go 
out, leaving the stranger to stroll by the river 
and watch the moon rise over the Aude with 
the ever present curtain of the Pyrenees loom- 
ing in the distance. It is all very peaceful and 
romantic, for which reason it may be presumed 
one comes to such a little old-world corner of 
Europe. And yet Quillan is a gay, live, little 
town, though it has not much in the way of 
sights to attract one. Still it is a delightful 
idling-place, and a good point from which to 
reach the chateau of Puylaurens out on the 
Perpignan road. 

Puylaurens has as eerie a site as any com- 
bination of walls and roofs that one has ever 
seen. It perches high on a peak overlooking 
the valley of the Boulzane ; and for seven cen- 
turies has looked down on the comings and 
goings of legions of men, women and children, 
and beasts of burden that bring up supplies to 
this sky-scraping height. To-day the chateau 
well deserves the name of ruin, but if it were 
not a ruin, and was inhabited, as it was cen- 
turies ago, no one would be content with any 
means of arriving at its porte-cochere but a 
funiruJaire or an express elevator. 

The roads about Quillan present some of the 



156 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

most remarkable and stiffest grades one will 
find in the Pyrenees. The antomobilist doesn't 
fear mountain roads as a usnal thing. They 
are freqnently unich better graded than the 
sudden unexpected inclines with which one 
meets very often in a comparatively flat coun- 
try; nevertheless there is a ten kilometre hair- 
pin hill to climb out of Quillan on the road to 
Axat which will try the hauling powers of any 
automobile yet put on the road, and the pa- 
tience of the most dawdling traveller who lin- 
gers by the way. It is tlie quick turns, the 
laccfs, the " hairpins," that make it difficult 
and dangerous, whether one goes up or down; 
and, when it is stated that slow-moving oxen, 
two abreast, and often four to a cart, are met 
with at every turn, hauling hundred-foot logs 
down the mountain, the real danger may well 
be conceived. 

Axat, the gateway to the Haute- Vallee is a 
dozen or more kilometres above Quillan, 
tlirough the marvellous Gorges de Pierre Lys. 
This is a canyon which rivals description. 
The magnificent roadway which runs close up 
under the haunches of the towering rocks be- 
side the river Aude is a work originally under- 
taken in the eighteenth century by the Abbe 
Felix Arnaud, Cure of St. Martin-Lys, a tiny 



The High Valley of the Aude 157 

village which one passes en route. The Abbe 
Arnaud who planned to cut this remarkable bit 
of roadway through the Gorges du Pierre-Lys, 
formerly a mere trail along which only smug- 
glers, brigands and army deserters had hitherto 
dared penetrate, and who to-day has the dis- 
tinction of a statue in the Place at Quillan, was 
certainly a good engineer. It is to be presumed 
he was as good a churchman. 

The Aude flows boldly down between two 
great beaks of mountains, and here, overhang- 
ing the torrent, the gentle abbe planned that 
a great roadway should be cut, by the frequent 
aid of tunnels and galleries and " corniches." 
And it was cut — as it was planned — in a most 
masterful manner. One of the rock-cut tunnels 
is called the '^ Trou du Cure," and above its 
portal are graven the following lines : — 

« Arr8te, voyageurs ! Le Maitre des humains 
A fait descendre ici la force et la lumiere. 
n a dit au Pasteur : Accomplis mon desaein, 
Et le Pasteur des monts a bris6 la barriere." 

Surely this is a more noble monument to the 
A'bbe Amaud than that in marble at Quillan. 
The actual " Gorge " is not more than fifteen 
hundred metres in length, but even this im- 
presses itself more profoundly by reason of 



158 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

the great height of the rock walls on either side 
of the gushing river. At Saint Martin-Lys, 
midway between Quillan and Axat, is the 
chnrch where the Abbe Arnaud served a long 
and useful life as the pastor of his mountain 
flock. 

Axat, at the upper end of the Gorge, will 
become a mountain summer resort of the very 
first rank if a boom ever strikes it ; but at pres- 
ent it is simply a delightful little, unspoiled 
Pyrenean town, where one eats brook trout and 
ortolans in the dainty little Hotel Saurel-Labat, 
and is lulled to sleep by the purling waters 
of the Aude directly beneath his windows. 
This quiet little town has a population of three 
hundred, and is blessed with an electric supply 
so abundant and so cheap, apparently, that the 
good lady who runs the all-satisfying little 
hotel does not think it worth while to turn off 
the lamps even in the daytime. This is not 
remarkable when one considers that the elec- 
tricity is a home-made product of the power of 
the swift flowing Aude, which rushes by Axat's 
dooryards at five kilometres an hour. 

Two kilometres above the town are the 
Gorges de St. Georges, also with a superb road- 
way burrowed out of the rock. Here is the 



Savarre and the Basque Provinces 

'ieiglit of the rock walls on either side 

ishing river. At Saint Martin-Lys, 

between Quillan and Axat, is the 

rti'uicii where the Abbe Arnaud served a long 

and useful life as the pastor of his mountain 

flock. 

Axat, at the upper end of the Gorge, will 
become a mountain summer resort of the very 
first rank if a boom ever strikes it : but at pres- 
ent it is simply a delightful little, unspoiled 
Pyrenean town, where one eats brook trout and 
ortolans in the dgaci^>Jfttle Hotel Saurel-Labat, 
and is lulled tci^Sreep-by the purling waters 
of the Aude directly beneath his windows. 
This quiet little town has a population of three 
hundred, and is blessed with an electric supply 
so abundant and so cheap, apparently, that the 
good lady wlio runs the all-satisfying little 
hotel does not think it worth while to turn off 
the lampf even in the daytime. This is not 
remarkable when one considers that the elec- 
tricity is n home -made product of the power of 
the swift flowing Aude, which rushes by Axat's 
dooryards at five kilometres an hour. 

Two kilometres above the town are the 
Gorges de St. Georges, also with a superb road- 
way burrowed out of the rock. Here is the 



The High Valley of the Aude 159 

gigantic usine-hydro-electrique of 6,000 horse- 
power obtained from a three-hundred-foot fall 
of water. That such things could be, here in 
this unheard of little corner of the Pyrenees, 
is far from the minds of most European trav- 
ellers who know only the falls of the Rhine at 
Schaffhausen. Axat has a ruined chateau on 
the height above the town which is a wonderful 
ruin although it has no recorded history. To 
imagine its romance, however, is not a difficult 
procedure if you know the Pyrenees and their 
history. Its attractions are indeed many; but 
it would be a paradise for artists who did not 
want to go far from their inn to search their 
subjects. There are in addition a quaint old 
thirteenth - century church, a magnificently 
arched stone bridge, and innumerable twist- 
ing vaulted passages high aloft near the cha- 
teau. 

Away above Axat is the plateau region 
known as the Capcir. thought to be the ancient 
bed of a mountain lake. It is closed on all 
sides by a great fringe of mountains, and is 
comparatively thickly inhabited because of its 
particularly good pasture lands; and has the 
reputntion of being the coldest inhabited region 
in France, though it may well divide this hon- 



160 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

our with the Alpine valleys of the Tarentaise 
in Savoie. One passes from the Capcir into 
the Cerdagne lying to the eastward by the Col 
de Casteillon. 



CHAPTER IX 

THE WALLS OF CAECASSONNE 

Never was there an architectural glory like 
that of Carcassonne. Most mediaeval fortified 
bourgs have been transformed out of all sem- 
blance to their former selves, but not so Car- 
cassonne. It lives to-day as in the past, trans- 
formed or restored to be sure, but still the very 
ideal of a walled city of the Middle Ages. 

The stress and cares of commerce and the 
super-civilization of these latter days have 
built up a new and ugly commercial city be- 
yond the walls, leaving La Cite a lonely dull 
place where the very spirit of medisevalism 
stalks the streets and passages, and the ghosts 
of a past time people the chateau, the donjon, 
and the surrounding buildings which once shel- 
tered counts and prelates and chevaliers and 
courtly ladies. The old cathedral, too, dedi- 
cated to St. Nazaire. ns pure a Gothic gem as 
may be found outside Sainte Chapelle in Paris, 
is as much of the past as if it existed only in 
memory, for services are now carried on in a 

161 



162 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

great, gaunt church in the lower town, leaving 
this magnificent structure unpeopled and alone. 

Carcassonne, as seen from the low-ljdng plain 
of the valley of the Aude, makes a most charm- 
ing inotif for a picture. In the purple back- 
ground are the Pyrenees, setting off the cren- 
elated battlements of walls, towers and donjon 
in genuine fairy-land fashion. It is almost too 
ethereal to be true, as seen through the dim mist 
of an early May morning. '' A wonderful dia- 
dem of chiselled stone set in the forehead of 
the Pyrenees," an imaginative Frenchman 
called it. It would not be wise to attempt to 
improve on this metaphor. 

This world's wonder — for it is a world's 
wonder, though not usually included in the 
magic seven — has enchanted author, poet, 
painter, historian and architect. Wlio indeed 
could help giving it the homage due, once hav- 
ing read Viollet-le-Duc's description in his 
" Dictionnaire Eaisonee d 'Architecture," or 
Nadaud's lines beginning: — 

" Je n'ai jamais vii Carcassonne." 

Five thousand people from all over the world 
pass its barbican in a year, and yet how few 
one recalls among his acquaintances who have 
ever been there. 



The Walls of Carcassonne 163 

It began to dawn upon the French away back 
in 1835, at the instigation of Prosper Merimee, 
that they had within their frontiers the most 
wonderfully impressive walled city still above 
ground. It was the work of fifty years to clear 
its streets and ramparts of a conglomerate 
mass of parasite structures which had been 
built into the old fabric, and to reconstruct the 
roofings and copings of walls and houses to an 
approximation of what they must once have 
been. 

Carcassonne is not very accessible to the 
casual tourist to southern France who thinks 
to laze away a dull November or January at 
Pau, Biarritz, or even on the Riviera. It is not 
in the least inaccessible, but it is not on the 
direct line to anywhere, unless one is en route 
from Bordeaux to Marseilles, or is making a 
Pyrenean trip. At any rate it is the best value 
for the money that one will get by going a 
couple of hundred kilometres out of his way in 
the whole circuit of France. By all means 
study the map, gentle reader, and see if you 
can't figure it out somehow so that yon may 
get to Carcassonne. 

Carcassonne, the present city, dates from the 
days of the good Snint Louis, but all interest 
lies with its elder sister. La Cite, a bouquet of 



164 Ol d Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

walls and towers, just across the eight-hundred- 
year-old bridge over the Aude. 

Close to the feudal city, across the Pont- 
Vieux, was the barbican, a work completed 
under Saint Louis. It gave immediate access 
to the city of antiquity, and defended the ap- 
proaches to the chateau after the manner of 
an outpost, which it really was. This one 
learns from the old plans, but the barbican 
itself disappeared in 1816. 




Carcassonne was a most ejffective stronghold 
and guarded two great routes which passed 
directly through it, one the Route de Spain, 
and the other running from Toulouse to the 
Mediterranean, the same that scorching auto- 



The Walls of Carcassonne 165 

mobilists " let out " on to-day as they go from 
one gaming-table at Monte Carlo to another at 
Biarritz. 

The Romans first made Carcassonne a strong- 
hold; then, from the fifth to the eighth cen- 
turies, came the Visigoths. The Saracens held 
it for twenty-five years and their traces are 
visible to-day. After the Saracens it came to 
Charlemagne, and at his death to the Vicomtes 
de Carcassonne, independent masters of a 
neighbouring region, who owed allegiance to 
nobody. This was the commencement of the 
French dynasty of Trencavel, and the early 
years of the eleventh century saw the court 
of Carcassonne brilliant with troubadours, 
minstrels and Cours d' Amour. The Cours 
d' Amour of Adelaide, wife of Roger Trencavel, 
and niece of the king of France, were famous 
throughout the Midi. The followers in her 
train — minstrels, troubadours and lords and 
ladies — were many, and no one knew or heard 
of the fair chatelaine of Carcassonne without 
being attracted to her. 

Simon de Montfort pillaged Carcassonne 
when raiding the country round about, but 
meanwhile the old Cite was growing in strength 
and importance, and many were the sieges it 
underwent which had no effect whatever on its 



166 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

walls of stone. All epochs are writ large in this 
momiment of mediaevalism. Until the conquest 
of Roussillon, Carcassonne's fortress held its 
proud position as a frontier stronghold; then, 
during long centuries, it was all but abandoned, 
and the modern city grew and prospered in a 
matter-of-fact way, though never approaching 
in the least detail the architectural magnifi- 
cence of its hill-top sister. 

The military arts of the Middle Ages are as 
well exemplified at Carcassonne as can any- 
where be seen out of books and engravings. 
The entrance is strongly protected by many 
twistings and turnings of walled alleys, pro- 
ducing a veritable maze. The Porte d'Aude 
is the chief entrance, and is accessible only to 
those on foot. Verily, the walls seem to close 
behind the visitor as he makes his way to the 
topmost height, up the narrow cobble-paved 
lanes. Four great gates, one within another, 
and four walls have to be passed before one 
is properly within the outer defences. To enter 
the Cite there is yet another encircling wall to 
be passed. 

Carcassonne is practically a double fortress; 
the distance around the outer walls is a kilo- 
metre and a half and the inner wall is a full 
kilometre in circumference. Between these 




The JJdlh of Carcassonne 



The Walls of Carcassonne 167 

fortifying ramparts unroll the narrow ribbons 
of roadway which a foe would find impossible 
to pass. 

Finally, within the last line of defence, on 
the tiny wall-surrounded plateau, rises the old 
Chateau de Trencavel, its high coiffed towers 
rising into the azure sky of the Midi in most 
spectacular fashion. On the crest of the inner 
wall is a little footpath, known in warlike times 
as the chemin de ronde, punctuated by forty- 
eight towers. From such an unobstructed bal- 
cony a marvellous surrounding panorama un- 
rolls itself; at one's feet lie the plain and the 
river; further off can be seen the mountains 
and sometimes the silver haze shimmering over 
the Mediterranean fifty miles away. Centu- 
ries of civilization are at one 's hand and within 
one's view. 

A curious tower — one of the forty-eight — 
spans the two outer walls. It is known as the 
Tour l']ilveque and possesses a very beautiful 
glass window. Here Viollet-le-Duc established 
his bureau when engaged on the reconstruction 
of this great work. 

Almost opposite, quite on the other side of 
the Cite, is the Porte Narbonnaise, the only way 
bv which a carriage may enter. One rises 
gently to the plateau, after first passing this 



1 OS Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

monumental gateway, wliicli is tianked by two 
towers. Over the Forte Narbounaise is a rude 
stone ligTire of Dame Oareas, the titular god- 
dess of the city. Quaint and curious this figure 
is, but possessed of absolutely no artistic as- 
pect. Below it are the simple words, " Sum 
Carcas." 

The Tour Bernard, just to tlie right of the 
Porte Narbonnaise, is a median-al curiosity. 
The records tell that it has served as a chicken- 
coop, a dog-kennel, a pigeon k^ft, and as the 
habitation of the guardian wlio had cliarge of 
the gate. Here in the walls of this great tower 
may still be seen solid stone shot firmly im- 
bedded where they first struck. The next 
tower, the Tour de Benazet, was the arsenal, 
and the Tour Notre Pa me, above tlie Porte de 
Eodez, was the scene of more than one '^ in- 
quisitorial " burning of Christians. 

The second line of defence and its towers is 
quite as curiously interesting as the first. 

From within, the Porte Narbonnaise was 
protected in a remarkable manner, the Chateau 
Narbonnaise commanding with its own barbi- 
can and walls every foot of the way from the 
gate to the chateau proper. Besides, there were 
iron chains stretched across the passage, low 
vaulted corridors, wolf -traps (or something 



The Walls of Carcassonne 169 

very like them) set in the ground, and loop- 
holes in the roofs overhead for pouring down 
boiling oil or melted lead on the heads of any 
invaders who might finally have got so far as 
this. 

The chateau itself, so safely ensconced within 
the surrounding walls of the Cite, follows the 
common feudal usage as to its construction. 
Its outer walls are strengthened and defended 
by a series of turrets, and contain within a 
cour d'honneur, the place of reunion for the 
armour-knights and the contestants in the 
Courts of Love. 

On the ground floor of this dainty bit of 
mediaevalism — which looks livable even to-day 
— were the seigneurial apartments, the chapel 
and various domestic offices. Beneath were 
vast stores and magazines. A smaller court- 
yard was at the rear, leading to the fencing- 
school and the kitchens, two important acces- 
sories of a feudal chateau which seem always 
to go side by side. 

On the first and second floors were the lodg- 
ings of the vicomtes and their suites. The 
great donjon contained a circular chamber 
where were held great solemnities such as the 
signing of treaties, marriage acts and the like. 
To the west of the cour d'honneur were the 



170 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

barracks of the garrison. All the parapher- 
nalia and machinery of a great mediaeval court 
were here perfectly disposed. Verily, no such 
story-telling feudal chateau exists as that of 
the Chateau de Narbonnais of the Trencavels 
in the old Cite of Carcassonne. 

The Place du Chateau, immediately in front, 
was a general meeting-place, while a little to 
the left in a smaller square has always been 
the well of bubbling spring-water which on 
more than one occasion saved the dwellers 
within from dying of thirst. 

Perhaps, as at Pompeii, there are great 
treasures here still buried underground, but 
diligent search has found nothing but a few 
arrowheads or spear heads, some pieces of 
money (money was even coined here) and a 
few fragments of broken copper and pottery 
utensils. 

Finally, to sum up the opinion of one and 
all who have viewed Carcassonne, there is not 
a city in all Europe more nearly complete in 
ancient constructions, or in better preserva- 
tion, than this old medioeval Cite. Centuries 
of history have left indelible records in stone, 
and they have been defiled less than in any 
other mediaeval monument of such a magnitude. 

Gustave Nadaud's lines on Carcassonne come 



The Walls of Carcassonne 171 

very near to being the finest topographical 
verses ever penned. Certainly there is no finer 
expression of truth and sentiment with regard 
to any architectural monument existing than 
the simple realism of the speech of the old peas- 
ant of Limoux : — 

" ' I'm sixty years ; I'm getting old ; 

I've done hard work through all my life, 
Though yet could never grasp and hold 

My heart's desire through all my strife. 
I knovF quite -well that here below 

All one's desires are granted none; 
My wish will ne'er fulfilment know, 

I never have seen Carcassonne." 

" ' They say that all the days are there 
As Sunday is throughout the week: 
New dress, and robes all white and fair 
Unending holidays bespeak.' 

«'0 ! God, O ! God, O ! pardon me. 

If this my prayer should'st Thou offend I 
Things still too great for us we'd see 

In youth or near one's long life end. 
My wife once and my son Aignan, 

As far have travelled as Narbonne, 
My grandson has seen Perpignan, 

But I have not seen Carcassonne.' " 

What emotion, what devotion these lines ex- 
press, and what a picture they paint of the 
simple faiths and hopes of man. He never did 



172 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

see Carcassonne, this old peasant of Limoux; 
the following lines tell why : — 

" Thus did complain once near Limoux 

A peasant hard bowed down with age. 
I said to him, < My friend, we'll go 

Together on this pilgrimage.' 
We started with the morning tide ; 

But God forgive. \We'd hardly gone 
Our road half over, ere he died. 

He never did see Carcassonne." 

In August, 1898, a great fete and illumination 
was given in the old Cite d,e Carcassonne. All 
the illustrious LanguedoQians alive, it would 
seem, were there, including the Cadets de Gas- 
cogne, among them Armand Sylvestre, D'Es- 
parbes, Jean Rameau, Emil Pouvillon, Benja- 
min Constant, Eugene Falguiere, Mercier, Jean- 
Paul Laurens, et als. 

All the artifice of the modern pyrotechnist 
made of the old city, at night, a reproduction 
of what it must have been in times of war and 
stress. It was the most splendid fireworks ex- 
hibition the world has seen since Nero fiddled 
away at burning Rome. '' La Cite Rouge/' 
Sylvestre called it. '' Oh, Vimpression inoubli- 
able! Oh! le splendide tableau! It luas so 
perfectly beautiful, so completely magnificent! 
I have seen the Kremlin thus illuminated; I 



The Walls of Carcassonne 173 

have seen old Nuremberg under the same con- 
ditions, hut I declare upon my honour never 
have I seen so beautiful a sight as the illumina- 
tions of Carcassonne." 

One view of the Cite not often had is from 
the Montagne Noire, where, from its supreme 
height of twelve hundred metres (the Pic de 
Nore) there is to be seen such a bird's-eye view 
as was never conceived by the imagination. On 
the horizon are the blue peaks of the Pyrenees 
cutting the sky with astonishing clearness; to 
the eastward is the Mediterranean ; and north- 
wards are the Cevennes; while immediately 
below is a wide-spread plain peopled here and 
there with tiny villages and farms all cluster- 
ing around the solid walls of Carcassonne — 
the Ville of to-day and the Cite of the past. 

Over the blue hills, southward from Carcas- 
sonne, lies Limoux. Limoux is famous for 
three things, its twelfth-century church, its fif- 
teenth-century bridge and its " hlanquette de 
Limoux," less ancient, but quite as enduring. 

If one's hunger is ripe, he samples the last 
first, at the table d'hote at the Hotel du Pigeon. 
'' Blanquette de Limoux " is simply an ordi- 
narily good white, sparkling wine, no better 
than Saumur, but much better than the hocks 
which have lately become popular in England, 



174 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

and much, much better than American cham- 
pagne. The town itself is charming, and the 
immediate environs, the peasants ' cottages and 
the vineyards, recall those verses of Nadaud's 
about that old son of the soil who prayed each 
year that he might make the journey over the 
hills to Carcassonne (it is only twenty-four 
kilometres) and refresh his old eyes with a 
sight of that glorious mediaeval monument. 

North of Carcassonne, between the city and 
the peak of the Montague Noire, is the old cha- 
teau of Lastours, a ruined glory of the days 
when only a hill-top situation and heavy walls 
meant safety and long life. 



CHAPTER X 

THE COUNTS OF FOIX 

The Comte de Foix and its civilization goes 
back to prehistoric, Gallic and Roman times. 
This much we know, but what the detailed 
events of these periods were, we know not. 
Archaeology alone, by means of remaining mon- 
uments in stone, must supply that which history 
omits. The primitives of the stone age lived 
mostly in caverns, but here they lived in some 
species of rude huts or houses. This at any 
rate is the supposition. With the Romans came 
civic importance ; and fortified towns and cities 
sprang up here and there of which existing 
remains, as at St. Lizier, tell a plain story. 

The principal historical events of the early 
years of the Middle Ages were religious in mo- 
tive. "Written records are few, however, and 
are mostly legendary accounts. Dynasties of 
great families began to be founded in the ninth 
century; and each region took on different 
manners nnd customs. The fouserans, a dis- 
memberment of Comminges, became practically 

175 



176 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

Gascon; while Foix cast off from Toulouse, 
had its own development. Victor Balaguer, the 
poet, expresses this better than most historians 
when he says: '' Provence et Pyrenees, s'ecrie- 
t-il, portent le deuil du monde latin. Le jour 
ou tomberent ceucc de Foix tomha aiissi la Pro- 
vence." 

The resistance of the counts in the famous 
wars of the Albigeois only provoked the incur- 
sion of the troops of the cruel Simon de Mont- 
fort. The Comte de Foix fell back finally on 
his strong chateau; and, on the sixteenth of 
June, 1229, in the presence of the papal legate, 
representative of the king of France, Eoger- 
Bernard II made his submission without re- 
serve. 

In 1272, under Comte Roger-Bernard III, 
the Chateau de Foix underwent a siege at the 
hands of Philippe-le-Hardi ; and, at the end 
of three days, seeing the preponderance of 
numbers against him, and being doubtful of his 
allies, he surrendered. By marriage with Mar- 
guerite de Moncade, daughter of the Vicomte 
de Beam, he inherited the two important fiefs 
of Catalogue and Boarn et Bigorre, thus pre- 
paring the way for possession of the throne of 
Navarro, By the thirteenth century the great 
feudal families of the Midi were dwindling in 



The Counts of Foix 177 

numbers, and it was this marriage of a Comte 
de Foix with the heiress of Beam which caused 
practically the extinction of one. 

The modern department of the Ariege, of 
which the ancient Comte de Foix formed the 
chief part, possesses few historical monuments 
dating before the Middle Ages, There are nu- 
merous residential chateaux scattered about, 
and the most splendid of them all is at Foix 
itself. Fine old churches and monasteries, and 
quaint old houses are numerous; yet it is a 
region less exploited by tourists than any other 
in France. 

Not all these historic shrines remain to-day 
unspoiled and untouched. Many of them were 
destroyed in the Revolution, but their sites and 
their ruins remain. The mountain slopes of 
this region are thickly strewn with watch-tow- 
ers and observatories; and though all but 
fallen to the ground they form a series of con- 
necting historical links which only have to be 
recognized to be read. The towers or chateaux 
of Quie, Tarascon-sur-Ariege, Gudanne, Lour- 
dat and Vic-Dessos are almost unknown to 
most travellers. They deserve to become bet- 
ter known, however, especially Lourdat, one of 
the most spectacularly endowed chateau ruins 
extant. 



178 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

The fourteenth century was the most bril- 
liant in the history of Foix. These were the 
days of Gaston Phoebus; and the description 
of his reception of Charles VI of France at 
Mazeres, as given by the chroniclers, indicates 
an incomparable splendour and magnificence. 
Gaston Phoebus, like Henri de Beam, was what 
might be called a good liver. Here is how he 
spent his day — when he was not warring or 
building castles. He rose at noon and after 
a mass he dined. Usually there were a great 
number of dishes; and, on really great occa- 
sions, as on a fete or festin, the incredible num- 
ber of two hundred and fifty. These princes of 
the Pyrenees loved good cheer, and their usage 
was to surcharge the tables and themselves with 
the good things until the results were uncom- 
fortable. Gaston's two sons, Yvain and Gra- 
tain, usually stood behind him at table, and the 
youngest son, another Gaston, first tried all the 
dishes before his august father ate of them. 
He was weak and sickly, a '^ mild and melan- 
choly figure," and no wonder! The feasting 
terminated, Gaston and his court would pass 
into the Salle de Parlement, '' where many 
things were debated," as the chroniclers put 
it. Soon entered the minstrels and trouba- 
dours, while in the courts there were trials of 



The Counts of Foix 179 

-a =^ 

skill between tke nobles of one house and an- 
other, stone throwing, throwing the spear, and 
the jeu de paume. The count — " toujours 
magnifique '' (no chronicler of the time neglects 
to mention that fact) — distributed rewards to 
the victors. After this there was more eating, 
or at least more drinking. 

When he was not sleeping or eating or amus- 
ing himself, or conducting such affairs as he 
could not well depute to another, such as the 
planning and building of castles, Gaston occu- 
pied himself, like many other princes of his 
time, with belles-lettres and poesy. He had 
four secretaires to do his writing; and it is 
possible that they may have written much 
which is attributed to him, if the art of employ- 
ing literary " ghosts " was known in that day. 
He composed chansons, ballades, rondeaux and 
virelais, and insisted on reading them aloud 
himself, forbidding any one to make a comment 
on them. How many another author would like 
to have the same prerogative! 

Gaston Phoebus de Foix, so named because 
of his classic beauty, was undoubtedly a great 
author in his day. This bold warrior wrote a 
book on the manners and usage of hunting in 
medifTval times, entitled the ^' Miroir de Phoe- 
bus; " and, while it might not pass muster 



180 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

among the masterpieces of later French litera- 
ture, it was a notable work for its time and 
literally a mirror of contemporary men and 
manners in the hunting field. 

Gaston de Foix was another gallant noble. 
He died at the age of twenty-four at the Battle 
of Eavenna in 1512. Jacques Fournier, who 
became Pope Benoit XII, also came from Foix. 

The honour of being the most celebrated of 
the Counts of Foix may well be divided by 
Gaston Phcpbus (1343-1390) and Henri Quatre 
(1553-1610). The latter was the last of the 
famous counts of the province; and he it was 
who united it with the royal domain of France, 
thus sinking its identity for ever, though his 
predecessors had done their utmost to keep its 
independence alive. 

During the Hundred Years War the Comtes 
de Foix, masters of the entire middle chain of 
the Pyrenees, were the strongest power in the 
southwest; and above all were they powerful 
because of their alliances and relations with 
the Spanish princes, whose friendship and aid 
were greatly to be desired, for their support 
meant success for their allies. This is proven, 
absolutely, from the fact that, when the Eng- 
lish were ultimately driven from France, it was 
through the aid and support of Gaston Phoebus 



The Counts of Foix 181 

himself and his successors, Archambaud, Jean I 
and Gaston IV. 

The fifteenth century saw the apogee of the 
house of Foix. One of its princes married 
Madeleine de France, sister of Louis XI. The 
sixteenth century saw sad times during a long 
civil war of more than thirty years duration. 
War among the members of a household or 
among one's own people is really an inexcus- 
able thing. In the Comte the Abbey of Boul- 
bonne was destroyed. At Pamiers all the relig- 
ious edifices were razed; and the Abbey of 
St. Volusien at Foix, the special pride of the 
counts for ages, was destroyed by fire. 

Calm came for a period under the reign of 
Henri IV, at Paris; but, after his death, local 
troubles and dissensions broke out again, in- 
spired and instigated by the wily Due de Rohan, 
which culminated at Pamiers, where the great 
Conde and Montmorenci appeared at the head 
of their troops. 

The peace of Alais ended this final struggle ; 
and, to assure the security of the country, 
Richelieu gave the order to dismantle all the 
walls and ramparts of the fortified places in 
the Comte, and all the chateaux-forts as well. 
This was done forthwith, and that is why many 
a mediaeval chateau in these parts is in ruins 



182 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

to-day. The Cliateau de Foix, by reason of its 
dignity, was allowed to keep its towers and 
battlemented walls. 

For a hundred and fifty years, that is up to 
the Revolution, Foix was comparatively tran- 
quil. Under the reign of Louis XIV, however, 
the region saw the frequent passage of troops 
and warlike stores as they came and went to 
the Spanish wars. This nearly ruined many 
dwellers in town and country by reason of the 
tax they had to pay in money and provisions. 

Like the Basques and the Bearnais the in- 
habitants of the Ariege, the descendants of the 
old adherents of the Comtes de Foix, bear 
many traces of their former independence and 
liberty. Civilization and their easy, comfort- 
able manner of living have not made of them 
a very robust race, but they are possessed of 
much fairness of face and figure and gentleness 
of manner. 

The smugglers of feudal times, and consid- 
erably later times for that matter, were the 
pest of the region. It was rude, hard work 
smuggling wines or tobacco over the mountains, 
in and out of Spain, and its wages were un- 
certain, but there were large numbers who em- 
barked on it in preference to grazing flocks and 



The Counts of Foix 183 

herds or engaging in other agricultural pur- 
suits. 

It was hard work for the smugglers of Foix 
to get their burdens up the mountains, but they 
had a custom of rolling their load up into great 
balls bounds around with wool and thongs and 
rolling them down the other side. Thus the 
labour was halved. The Romany chiel or gypsy 
adopted the contraband business readily; and 
with the competition of the French and Span- 
ish, there were lively times on the frontier be- 
tween Foix and Gascogne and Spain and An- 
dorra. 

M. Thiers recounts an adventure in an au- 
berge of the Pyrenees with such a crew of ban- 
dits, and thought himself lucky to escape with 
his life. 

The chief of the band, as the travellers were 
all sitting around the great log fire, began clean- 
ing his pipe with a long poignard-like knife 
which, he volunteered, was ready to do other 
service than whittling bread or tobacco if need 
be. The night passed off safely enough by rea- 
son of the arrival of a squad of gendarmes, 
but the next night a whole house full of trav- 
ellers were murdered on the same spot. 

The roads of the old Comte de Foix, a very 
important thing for many who travel by auto- 



184 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

mobile, are throughout excellent and extensive. 
There are fourteen Routes Nationales and De- 
partementales crossing in every direction. The 
highway from Toulouse to Madrid runs via 
St. Girons and Bayonne into Andorra by way 
of the valley of the Ariege, and to Barcelona 
via Perpignan and the Col de Perthus. 

The valley of the Ariege, to a large extent 
included in the Comte de Foix, has a better pre- 
served historical record than its neighbours on 
the east and west. 

In the ninth century the ruling comte was 
allied with the houses of Barcelona and Car- 
cassonne. His residence was at Foix from this 
time up to the Revolution; and his rule em- 
braced the valley of the Hers, of which Mire- 
poix was the principal place, the mountain 
region taken from Catalogue, and a part of the 
lowlands which had been under the scrutiny 
of the Comtes de Toulouse. 



CHAPTER XI 



FOIX AND ITS CHATEAU 



Foix, of all the Prefectures of France of to- 
day, is the least cosmopolitan. Privas, Mende 
and Digne are poor, dead, dignified relics of the 
past; but Foix is the dullest of all, although 
it is a very gem of a smiling, diffident little 
wisp of a city, green and flowery and astonish- 
ingly picturesque. It has character, whatever 
it may lack in progressiveness, and the brilliant 
colouring is a part of all the cities of the South. 

Above the swift flowing Ariege in their su- 
perb setting of mountain and forest are the 
towers and parapets of the old chateau, in it- 
self enough to make the name and fame of any 
city. 

Architecturally the remains of the Chateau 
de Foix do not, perhaps, rank very high, though 
they are undeniably imposing ; and it will take 
a review of Froissart, and the other old chron- 
iclers of the life and times of the magnificent 
Gaston Phoebus, to revive it in all its glory. A 
great state residence something more than a 

186 



186 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

mere feudal chateau, it does not at all partake 
of the aspect of a chateau-fort. It was this last 
fact that caused the Comtes de Foix, when, by 
marriage, they had also become seigneurs of 
Beam, to abandon it for Mazeres, or their es- 
tablishments at Pau or Orthez. 

Foix nevertheless remained a proud capital, 
first independent, then as part of the province 
of Navarre, then as a province of the Royaume 
de France; and, finally, as the Prefecture of 
the Departement of Ariege. The population in 
later times has grown steadily, but never has 
the city approached the bishopric of Pamiers, 
just to the northward, in importance. 

Many towns in this region have a decreasing 
population. The great cities like Toulouse and 
Bordeaux draw upon the youth of the country 
for domestic employment; and, lately, as 
chauffeurs and manicurists, and in comparison 
to these inducements their native towns can 
offer very little. 

If one is to believe the tradition of antiquity 
the '' Rocher de Foix/' the tiny rock plateau 
upon which the chateau sits, served as an out- 
post when the Phoceans built the primitive 
chateau upon the same site. Says a Renais- 
sance historian: " On the peak of one of 
nature's wonders, on a rock, steep and inac- 



Foix and Its Chateau 187 

cessible on all sides, was situated one of the 
most ancient fortresses of our land." 

In Roman times the site still held its own as 
one of importance and impregnability. A rep- 
resentation of the chateau as it then was is to 
be seen on certain coins of the period. This 
establishes its existence as previous to the 
coming of the Visigoths in the beginning of the 
sixth century. The first written records of the 
Chateau de Foix date from the chronicles of 
1002, when Eoger-le-Vieux, Comte de Carcas- 
sonne, left to his heir, Bernard-Roger, " La 
Terre et le Chateau de Foix." 

The Chateau de Foix owes its reputation to 
its astonishingly theatrical site as much as to 
the historic memories which it evokes, though 
it is with good right that it claims a legendary 
renown among the feudal monuments of the 
Pyrenees. All roads leading to Foix give a 
long vista of its towered and crenelated cha- 
teau sitting proudly on its own little monticule 
of rock beside the Ariege. Its history begins 
with that of the first Comtes de Foix, the first 
charter making mention thereof being the last 
will and testament of Roger-Bernard, the first 
count, who died in 1002. 

During the wars against the Albigeois the 
chateau was attacked by Simon de Montfort 



188 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

three times, in 1210, 1212, 1213, but always in 
vain. Though the surrounding faubourgs were 
pillaged and burned the chateau itself did not 
succumb. It did not even take fire, for its rocky 
base gave no hold to the flames which burned 
so fiercely around it. 

The most important event of the chateau's 
history happened in 1272 when the Comte 
Boger-Bernard III rebelled against the author- 
ity of the Seneschal-Royal of Toulouse. To 
punish so rebellious a vassal, Philippe-le-Hardi 
came forthwith to Foix at the head of an army, 
and himself undertook the siege of the chateau. 
At the end of three days the count succumbed, 
with the saying on his lips that it was useless 
to cut great stones and build them up into for- 
tresses only to have them razed by the first 
besiegers that came along. Whatever the qual- 
ifications of the third Roger-Bernard were, con- 
sistent perseverance was not one of them. 

Just previous to 1215, after a series of in- 
trigues with the church authorities, the cha- 
teau became a dependence of the Pope of Rome ; 
but at a council of the Lateran the Comte Ray- 
mond-Roger demanded the justice that was his, 
and the new Pope Honorius III made over the 
edifice to its rightful proprietor. 

During the wars of religion the chateau was 



Foix and Its OMteau 189 

the storm-centre of great military operations, 
of which the town itself became the unwilling 
victim. In 1561 the Huguenots became masters 
of the city. 

Under Louis XIII it was proposed to raze the 
chateau, as was being done with others in the 
Midi, but the intervening appeal of the gov- 
ernor saved its romantic walls to posterity. In 
the reign of Louis XIV the towers of the cha- 
teau were used as archives, a prison and a mili- 
tary barracks, and since the Revolution — for 
a part of the time at least — it has served as 
a house of detention. When the tragic events 
of the Eeformation set all the Midi ablaze, and 
Eichelieu and his followers demolished most 
of the chateaux and fortresses of the region, 
Foix was exempted by special orders of the 
Cardinal-Minister himself. 

Another war cloud sprang up on the horizon 
in 1814, by reason of the fear of a Spanish 
invasion; and it was not a bogey either, for 
in 1811 and 1812 the Spaniards had already 
penetrated, by a quickly planned raid, into the 
high valley of the Ariege. 

In 1825 civil administration robbed this fine 
old example of mediaeval architecture of many 
of those features usually exploited by anti- 
quarians. To increase its capacity for shelter- 



190 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

ing criminal prisoners, barracks and additions 
— mere shacks many of them — were built; 
and the original outlines were lost in a maze 
of meaningless roof-tops. Finally, a quarter 
of a century later, the rubbish was cleared 
away; and, before the end of the century, res- 
toration of the true and faithful kind had made 
of this noble mediaeval monument a vivid re- 
minder of its past feudal glory quite in keep- 
ing with its history. 




Ground Plan of the Chateau de Foix 






The actual age of the monument covers many 
epochs. The two square towers and the main 
edifice, as seen to-day, are anterior to the thir- 
teenth century, as is proved by the design in 
the seals of the Comtes de Foix of 1215 and 
1241 now in the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris. 



190 Old Navarre and the B nnces 

ing criminal prisoners, barracks and additions 
— ^mere sliack^- f sany of them — were built; 
and the oriK i' outlines were lost in a maze 
of meaniiudcci; roof-tops. Finally, a quarter 
of a century later, the rubbish was cleared 
away ; 'Ud, before the end of the century, res- 
torali' i( of the true and faithful kind had made 
of u IS noble mediaeval monument a vivid re- 
iniii i'T of its past feudal glory quite in keep- 
ui^ with its history. 



.-^HATEAtKJDg, F01X^.^,.,.-<^.fe^ ^ 




4it n 

Oround Plan of the ChMeau de Fi 



The actual age of the monument covers many 
epochs. The two square towers and the main 
edifice, as seen to-diiy, are anterior to the thir- 
teenth century, as i« proved by the design in 
the seals of the Comtes de Foix of 1215 and 
1241 now in the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris. 



•^.fTf^mtJf ¥n;T' 







Foix and Its Chateau 



191 



In the fourteenth century these towers were 
strengthened and enlarged with the idea of 
making them more effective for defence and 
habitation. 

The escutcheons of Foix, Beam and Com- 
minges, to be seen in the great central tower, 
indicate that it, too, goes back at least to the 
end of the fourteenth century, when Eleanore 
de Comminges, the mother of Gaston Phoebus, 
ruled the Comte. 




Key of the Vavlting, Chdteau de Foix, 
Sfu)wing the Arms of the Corntes de Foix 



192 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

The donjon or Tour Ronde arises on the 
west to a height of forty-two metres ; and will 
be remarked by all familiar with these sermons 
in stone scattered all over France as one of the 
most graceful. Legend attributes it to Gaston 
Phoebus; but all authorities do not agree as 
to this. The window and door openings, the 
mouldings, the accolade over the entrance door- 
way and the machicoulis all denote that they 
belong to the latter half of the fifteenth cen- 
tury. These, however, may be later interpo- 
lations. 

Originally one entered the chateau from ex- 
actly the opposite side from that used to-day. 
The slope leading up to the rock and swinging 
around in front of the town is an addition of 
recent years. Formerly the plateau was gained 
by a rugged path which finally entered the pre- 
cincts of the fortress through a rectangular 
barbican. 

Finally, to sum it up, the pleasant, smiling, 
trim little city of Foix, and its chateau rising 
romantically above it, form a delightful pros- 
pect. Well preserved, well protected, and for 
ever free from further desecration, the Chateau 
de Foix is as nobly impressive and glorious a 
monument of the Middle Ages as may be found 



Poix and Its Chateau 193 

in France, as well as chief record of the gal- 
lant days of the Comtes de Foix. 

Foix' Palais de Justice, built back to back 
with the rock foundations of the chateau, is 
itself a singular piece of architecture contain- 
ing a small collection of local antiquities. This 
old Maison des Gouvemeurs, now the Palais de 
Justice, is a banal, unlovely thing, regardless of 
its high-sounding titles. 

In the Bibliotheque, in the Hotel de Ville, 
there are eight manuscripts in folio, dating 
from the fifteenth century, and coming from 
the Cathedral of Mirepoix. They are exqui- 
sitely illuminated with miniatures and initials 
after the manner of the best work of the time. 

It was that great hunter and warrior, Gas- 
ton Phoebus who gave the Chateau de Foix its 
greatest lustre. 

It was here that this most brilliant and most 
celebrated of the counts passed his youth ; and 
it was from here that he set out on his famous 
expedition to aid his brother knights of the 
Teutonic Order in Prussia. At Gaston's orders 
the Comte d'Armagnac was imprisoned here, 
to be released after the payment of a heavy 
ransom. As to the motive for this particular 
act authorities differ as to whether it was the 
fortunes of war or mere brigandage. 



194 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

They lived high, the nobles of the old days, 
and Froissart recounts a banquet at which he 
had assisted at Foix, in the sixteenth century, 
as follows : — 

" And this was what I saw in the Comte de 
Foix: The Count left his chamber to sup at 
midnight, the way to the great salle being led 
by twelve varlets, bearing twelve illumined 
torches. The great hall was crowded with 
knights and equerries, and those who would 
supped, saying nothing meanwhile. Mostly 
game seemed to be the favourite viand, and the 
legs and wings only of fowl were eaten. Music 
and chants were the invariable accompaniment, 
and the company remained at table until after 
two in the morning. Little or nothing was 
drunk. ' ' 

Froissart 's description of the table is simple 
enough, but he develops into melodrama when 
he describes how the count killed his own son 
on the same night — a tragic ending indeed 
to a brilliant banquet. " ' Ha! traitor,' the 
Comte said in the patois, as he entered his 
sleeping son's chamber; * why do you not sup 
with us? He is surely a traitor who will not 
join at table.' And with a swift, but gentle 
drawing of his coutel (Imife) across his suc- 
cessor's throat he calmly went back to supper." 



Foix and Its Chateau 195 

Truly, there were high doings when knights 
were bold and barons held their sway. They 
could combat successfully everything but treach- 
ery; but the mere suspicion of that prompted 
them to take time by the forelock and become 
traitors themselves. 

Foix has a fete on the eighth and ninth of 
September each year, which is the delight of 
all the people of the country round about. Its 
chief centre is the Alices de Vilote, a great tree- 
shaded promenade at the base of the chateau. 
It is brilliantly lively in the daytime, and fairy- 
like at night, with its trees all hung with great 
globes of light. 

A grand ball is the chief event, and the 
*' Quadrille Ofificiel " is opened with the maire 
and the prefet at the head. After this comes 
la fete generate, when the happy southrons know 
no limit to their gaieties. There are three great 
shaded promenades, and in each is a ball with 
its attendant music. It is a pandemonium; 
and one has to be habituated to distinguish 
the notes of one blaring band from the others. 
The central park is reserved for the country 
folk, that on the left for the town folk, and that 
on the right for the nobility. This, at any rate, 
was the disposition in times past, and some 
sort of distinction is still made. 



196 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

In suburban Foix, out on the road to Pamiers, 
is the little village of St. Jean-de-Vergues. It 
has a history, of course, but not much else. It 
is a mere spot on the map, a mere cluster of 
houses on the Grande Route and nothing more. 
In the days of the Comte Roger-Bernard, how- 
ever, when he would treat with the king of 
France, and showed his willingness to become 
a vassal, its inhabitants held out beyond all 
others for an '' independance comtale." They 
didn't get it, to be sure, but with the arrival 
of Henri Quatre on the throne of France, the 
vassalage became more friendly than enforced. 



CHAPTER XII 

THE VALLEY OF THE AEIEGE 

The entire valley of the Ariege, from the 
Val d'Andorre until it empties into the Ga- 
ronne at Toulouse, contains as many historic 
and romantic reminders as that of any river 
of the same length in France. 

Saverdun and Mazeres, between Toulouse 
and Pamiers, and perhaps fifty kilometres 
north of Foix, must be omitted from no his- 
torical trip in these parts. Saverdun sits close 
beside one of the few remaining columns which 
formerly marked the boundary between Lan- 
guedoc and Gascogne, a veritable historical 
guide-post. It was one of the former fortified 
towns of the Comte de Foix. It is an unim- 
portant and unattractive enough place to-day, 
if a little country town of France can ever be 
called unattractive, but it is the head centre of 
innumerable chateaux and country houses of 
other days hidden away on the banks of the 
Ariege. Mostly they are without a traceable 
history, but everything points to the fact that 

197 



198 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

they played an important part in the golden 
days of chivalry, and such names as I'Avocat- 
Vieux, Frayras, Larlenque, Madron, Pauliac 
and Le Vigne — the oldtime manor of the fam- 
ily of Mauvasin — will suggest much to any 
who know well their mediaeval history. 

A diligence runs to-day from Saverdun to 
Mazeres, the birthplace of the gorgeous and 
gallant Gaston of Foix, the hero of Ravenna. 
Mazeres is a most ancient little town, built on 
the banks of a small river, the Hers, and in the 
thirteenth century was surrounded by impor- 
tant fortifications, now mostly gone to build 
up modern garden walls. Around the old ram- 
parts has been laid out a series of encircling 
boulevards, which, as an expression of civic 
improvement, is far and away ahead of the 
squares and circles of new western towns in 
America. The encircling boulevard is one, if 
not the chief, charm of very many French 
towns. 

The ruins of the ancient chateau where was 
born the celebrated Gaston are still seen, but 
nothing habitable is left to suggest the luxury 
amid which the youth was brought up. Near by 
are the chateaux of Nogarede and Nassaure, 
each of them reminiscent of family names writ 
large in the history of Foix. 



The Valley of the Ariege 199 

Another dozen kilometres southward towards 
Foix is Pamiers. It is extremely probable that 
provincial France has changed its manners con- 
siderably since the Revolution, but one can 
hardly believe of Pamiers, to-day a delightful 
little valley town, all green and red and brown, 
that a traveller with a jaundiced eye once called 
it '' an ugly, stinking, ill-built hole with an inn 
— of sorts." This is not the aspect of the city, 
nor does it describe the Hotel Catala. 

Pamiers owes its origin to the erection of 
a feudal chateau by Comte Roger II on his re- 
turn from the Holy Land, and which he called 
Apamea or Apamia, in memory of his visit to 
Apamee in Syria. Evolution has readily trans- 
formed the name into Pamiers. Virtually, so 
far as its lands went, the place belonged to a 
neighbouring abbey, but as the monks were 
forced to call upon the Comtes de Foix to aid 
them in protecting their property from the 
Comtes de Carcassonne, the title rights soon 
passed to the ruling house of Foix. In 1628 
Conde pillaged and sacked the city, and not a 
vestige now remains of its once proud chateau, 
save such portions as may have been built into 
and hidden in other structures. The site of the 
old chateau is preserved in the memory only 
by the name of Castellat, which has been given 



200 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

to a singularly beautiful little park and prom- 
enade. 

It was in the thirteenth century that a Bishop 
of Pamiers, the legate of Pope Boniface VIII, 
insulted Philippe-le-Bel in full audience of his 
parlement. The king, resentful, drove him 
from the council, and a Bull of Pope Boniface 
delivered the bishop to an ecclesiastical tri- 
bunal. So far, so good, but Boniface issued 
another Bull demanding that the king of 
France submit to papal power in matters tem- 
poral as well as in matters spiritual. Thus a 
pretty quarrel ensued, beginning with the fa- 
mous letter from the king, which opened thus : 
** Philippe, by the grace of God, King of the 
French, to Boniface, the pretended Pope, has 
little or no reason for homage. ..." 

Pamiers itself is a dull little provincial ca- 
thedral town, lying low in a circle of surround- 
ing hills. Its churches are historically famous, 
and architecturally varied and beautiful, and 
the octagonal belfry of its cathedral (1512), in 
the style known as '' Gothic-Toulousain/ ' is 
particularly admirable. 

Mirepoix, a dozen kilometres east of Pa- 
miers, is interesting. The Seigneurie of Mire- 
poix became an appanage of Guy de Levis, 
marechal in the army of Simon de Montfort 



The Valley of the Ariege 201 

in the thirteenth century, but the legislators 
of Revolutionary times, disregarding the usage 
of five centuries, coupled the control of the 
affairs of the region with those of Foix, from 
which it had indeed been separated long ages 
before. 

Mirepoix has, nevertheless, an individuality 
and a history quite its own. In 1317 it was 
made a bishopric, and was under the immediate 
control of the Seneschalship of Carcassonne. 
It had, by parent right, a certain attachment 
for Foix, but by the popular consent of its peo- 
ple none at all; thus it lay practically under 
the sheltering wing of Languedoc. 

The descendants of Guy de Levis were dis- 
tinguished in the army, in diplomacy and held 
many public offices of trust at Paris. Under 
Louis XV the last representative of the family 
was made a ** Due, Marechal de France et Gou- 
verneur de Languedoc." It was his cousin, 
Frangois de Levis-Ajac (from whom Levis op- 
posite Quebec got its name), who became also 
Marechal de France, and illustrious by reason 
of his defence of Canada. 

The Chateau de Montsegur, in the valley of 
the Hers, was the scene of the last stand of the 
Albigeois tracked to their death by the inquis- 
itors. 



202 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

Just westward of Foix is La Bastide-de- 
Serou, founded in 1254, another of those an- 
cient bastides with which this part of the Midi 
was covered in mediaeval times. To-day it is 
a mere nothing on the map, and not much more 
in reality, a dull, sad town, whose only liveli- 
ness comes from the exploitations of a company 
whose business it is to dig phosphate and baux- 
ite from the hillsides round about. 

Below La Bastide is the Chateau de Bour- 
dette, charmingly set about with vines in a gen- 
uine pastoral fashion. For a neighbour, not 
far away, there is also the Chateau de Rodes, 
set in the midst of a forest of mountain ash 
and quite isolated. Either, if they are ever put 
on the market (for they are inhabitable to-day), 
would make a good retiring spot for one who 
wanted to escape the strenuous cares and hurly- 
burly of city life. 

South of Foix is Tarascon-sur-Ariege, a 
name which has a familiar sound to lovers of 
fiction and readers of Daudet. It was not at 
Tarascon-sur-Ariege where lived Daudet 's esti- 
mable bachelor, Tartarin, but Tarascon-sur- 
Rhone in Provence. Daudet pulled the latter 
smug little town from obscurity and oblivion 
— even though the inhabitants said that he had 
slandered them — but nothing has happened 




•■"•^ 



Tarasron-sur-Ariege 



The Valley of the Ariege 203 

that gives distinction to the Tarascon of the 
Pyrenees since the days when its seigneurs in- 
habited its chateau. 

Reminders of the town's mediseval impor- 
tance are few indeed, and of its chateau only a 
lone round tower remains. There are two for- 
tified gateways in the town still above ground, 
and two thirteenth-century church towers which 
take rank as admirable mediaeval monuments. 

Tarascon was one of the four principal forti- 
fied towns of the Comte de Foix, but suffered 
by fire, and for ever since has languished and 
dozed its days away, so that not even a passing 
automobile will wake its dwellers from their 
somnolence. Tarascon has a fine and pictur- 
esque bridge over the Ariege which intrudes 
itself in the foreground from almost every 
view-point. It is not old, however, but the work 
of the last century. 

Here nearly everything is of the mouldy past 
and rusty with age and tradition, though there 
is a local iron industry something considerable 
in extent. 

The highroad from Foix into Andorra cuts 
the town directly in halves, and on either side 
are narrow, climbing streets running up the 
hillside from the river bank, but architectural 
or topographical changes have been few since 



204 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

the olden times. Tarascon's population — 
though the place is the market town of the com- 
mune — has, in a hundred years, fallen from 
fifteen hundred to fourteen hundred and forty 
five, to give exact statistical figures, which are 
supposed not to lie. Such observations in 
France really prove nothing, not even that 
signs of progress are wanting, nor that folk 
are less prosperous; they simply suggest that 
its cities and towns are self-satisfied and con- 
tent, and are not ambitious to outdistance their 
neighbours in alleged civic improvements of 
doubtful taste — always at the tax-payers' ex- 
pense. 

Tarascon of itself might well be omitted 
from a Pyrenean itinerary, but when one in- 
cludes the neighbouring church of Notre Dame 
de Sabart — a place of pilgrimage for the 
faithful of the whole region of the Pyrenees 
on the eighth and fifteenth of September — the 
case were different. It is one of the sights and 
shrines of the region, as is that of Stes. Maries- 
de-la-Mer in Provence, or Notre Dame de La- 
ghat in the old Comte de Nice. 

The old abbey-fortress built here by Charle- 
magne has disappeared, but the great Eoman- 
esque church, with its three great naves, is 
avowedly built up from the remains of the 



The Valley of the Ariege 205 

former edifice. Most of Charlemagne's handi- 
work has vanished throughout his kingdom, but 
the foundations remain, here and there, and 
upon them has been built all that is best and 
most enduring in Gaul. 

In the environs it was planned to make a 
great centre of affairs, but destiny and the 
Comtes de Foix ruled otherwise, though, curi- 
ously enough, up to the Revolution the " Pre- 
tres de S ah art " ruled with an iron-bound su- 
premacy many of the affairs of neighbouring 
parishes which were no business of theirs. It 
was church and state again in conflict, but the 
Revolution finished that for the time being. 

Like many of the pardons of Brittany, or 
the fete of Les Saintes Maries in Provence, the 
fete of Notre Dame de Sabart commences as a 
religious function, but degenerates finally into 
a Fete Profane, with dancing, bull-baiting, and 
eating and drinking to the full. It is perhaps 
not a wholly immoral aspect that the fete takes 
on; certainly the participants do not act in 
any manner outrageous; but by contrast the 
thing is bound to be remarked by westerners, 
and probably misjudged and set down as some- 
thing worse than it is. Bull-baiting, for in- 
stance, sounds bad, but when one learns that 
it consists only of trying to snatch a ribbon 



206 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

rosette from between the bull's horns — for a 
prize of three francs for a blue one, and five 
francs for a red one, the bull carrying the red 
rosette being, supposedly, more vicious and 
savage than the others — the whole thing re- 
solves itself into a simple, harmless amusement, 
far more dangerous for the amateur rosette 
picker than the bull, who really seems to en- 
joy it. 

Vic Dessos, just southwest of Tarascon, is 
a quaint little mountain town, with the ruins 
of the Chateau de Montreal and a twelfth-cen- 
tury church as attractions for the traveller. 
The savage surroundings of Vic, the denuded 
mountain peaks, and the deep valleys, bring 
tempests and thunderstorms in their train with 
astonishing violence and frequency. The clouds 
roll down like a pall, suddenly, at any time of 
the year, and as quickly pass away again. The 
phenomena have been remarked by many trav- 
ellers in times past, and one need not fear miss- 
ing it if he stays anything over three hours 
within a fifty-kilometre radius. If this offers 
anything of a sensation to one, Vic Dessos 
should be visited. You can arrive by diligence 
from Tarascon, and can get comfortably in out 
of the rain at the excellent Hotel Benazet. 

From Tarascon to Ax-les-Thermes, still in 



The Valley of the Ariege 207 

the valley of the Ariege, is twenty-five kilo- 
metres of superb roadway. All the way are 
strung out groups of dainty villages sur- 
rounded with cultivated country. Here and 
there is an isolated mass of rock, a round 
watch-tower, or a ruined fortress, still possess- 
ing its crenelated walls to give an attitude of 
picturesqueness. There are innumerable little 
villages, a whole battery of them, linked to- 
gether. At the end of this long peopled high- 
way is an unpretentious mediaeval country 
house, of that class known as a gentilJiommi- 
ere, of fawn-coloured stone, and still possess- 
ing its two flanking sentinel towers preserved 
in all the romantic grimness of their youth. 

At the junction of the Ariege with the Ascou, 
the Oriege, the Lauze and the Foins is Ax-les- 
Thermes — the ancient AqucB of tlie Romans, 
and now a '' thermal station " of the first rank. 
Primarily Ax is noted for its sulphurous wa- 
ters, but for the lover of romantic days and 
ways its architectural and historical monuments 
are of the first consideration. The ruins of the 
Chateau des Maures, the ancient Cast el Mail, 
are the chief of these monuments, while a neigh- 
bouring peak of rock bears aloft an enormous 
square tower surmounted by a statue of the 
Virgin. 



208 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

There are sixty-one ^' sources " at Ax-les- 
Thermes giving a supply of medicinal waters. 
In part they were known to the Eomans, and 
in 1260 Saint Louis founded a hospital here 
for sick soldiers returning from the Crusades, 

Ax-les-Thermes is not a howlingly popular 
watering place, but it is far more delightful 
than Luchon, Cauterets or Bigorre, if quaint- 
ness of architecture, manners and customs, and 
modesty of hotel prices count for anything. 

The Porte et Pont d'Espagne at Ax is one 
of the most interesting architectural reminders 
of the past that one will find throughout the 
Pyrenees. The bridge itself is but a diminu- 
tive span carrying a narrow roadway, which 
if not forbidden to automobile trafiSc should 
be, for the negotiating of this bridge and road, 
and the low, arched gateway at the end, will 
come very near to spelling disaster for any who 
undertakes it. 

Throughout the neighbourhood one sees more 
than an occasional yawning pit's mouth. All 
through the Comte de Foix were exploited, and 
are yet to some extent, iron mines and forges, 
the latter known as Forges Catalans. Eoger- 
Bernard, Comte de Foix, in 1293 gave the first 
charter to the mine-promotors of the neigh- 
bourhood, and the industry flourished in many 



The Valley of the Ariege 209 

parts of the Comte until within a few genera- 
tions, when, apparently, the supply of mineral 
was becoming exhausted. 

At Luzenac, on the line between Tarascon 
and Ax, one turns off the road and in a couple 
of hours, if he is a good brisk walker, makes 
the excursion to the chdteau-d-pic of Lourdat. 
There is a little village of the same name at the 
base of the rocky peak which holds aloft the 
chateau, but that doesn't count. 

"Without question this Chateau de Lourdat 
ranks as one of the most spectacular of all the 
Pyrenean chateaux. Its rank in history, too, 
is quite in keeping with its extraordinary situ- 
ation, though nothing very startling ever hap- 
pened within its walls. It dates from the thir- 
teenth and fifteenth centuries, and outside that 
of the capital of Foix was the most efficient 
stronghold the counts possessed. Louis XIII 
demolished the edifice, in part, fearing its 
powers of resistance, and as a base from which 
some new project might be launched against 
him. Accordingly, it is a ruin to-day, but in 
spite of this there are still left four pronounced 
lines of fortifications before one comes to the 
inner precincts of the chateau. For this reason 
alone it ranks as one of the most strongly de- 
fended of all contemporary feudal works. Even 



210 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

the old Cite de Carcassonne has but two encir- 
cling walls. 

The square donjon rising in the middle is in 
the best style of that magnificent royal builder, 
Gaston Phoebus, and is reminiscent of the 
works of Foulques Nerra in mid-France. 
There is also a great ogive-arched portal, or 
gateway, which made still another defence to 
be scaled before one finally entered within. 

In situation and general spectacular effect 
the Chateau de Lourdat takes a very near rank 
to that rock-perched chateau at Le Puy — 
** the most picturesque spot in the world." 







Chateau dc Lourdat 



CHAPTER XIII 

ST, LIZIER AND THE COUSEEANS 

Le Pays de Couserans lies in the valley of 
the Salat, in the mid-Pyrenees, hemmed in by 
Foix, Comminges and Spain. Its name is de- 
rived from the Euskarans, an Iberian tribe who 
were here on the spot in the dark ages. 

The history of the Couserans is not known 
to anything like the extent of its neighbouring 
states, and is, accordingly, very little trav- 
elled by strangers from afar, save long- 
bearded antiquarians who come to study St. 
Lizier, and regret that they were not obliged 
to come on donkey-back as of old, instead of 
by rail or automobile. The trouble with anti- 
quarianism, as a profession, or a passion, is 
that it leads one to fall into a sleepy unpro- 
gressiveness which comports little with the 
modern means at hand for doing things. A 
photographic plate of a curious Roman in- 
scription is far more truthful and convincing 
than the most painstaking Ruskinese pencil 
drawing ever limned, and a good '' process- 

211 



212 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 
■ ■■ 

cut " of the broad strokes of some facile mod- 
ern artist's brush is more typical of the char- 
acteristics of a landscape than the finest wood 
or steel engraving our grandfathers ever knew. 

If you like grand mountains, here in Couse- 
rans is Mont Vallier, a superb giant of the cen- 
tral chain of the Pyrenees. If it is sweet slop- 
ing valleys that you prefer, here they are in 
all their unspoiled wildness, for the railway 
actually does stop at St. Girons, If an ice-cold 
mountain stream would please your fancy, there 
is the Salat and its tributaries, flowing down 
by St. Girons and St. Lizier into the Garonne. 
And, finally, if you wish to roll back the curtain 
of time you will see in old St. Lizier a stage set 
with the accessories the reminiscent splendours 
of which will be scarcely equalled by any other 
feudal bourg of France. 

There is no region in the Pyrenees of which 
less is known historically than the Yalley of the 
Salat. A vicomte reigned here in the sixteenth 
century, but the seigneury was divided among 
different branches of the family soon after; 
and, if they had an archivist among them, he 
failed to preserve his documents along with 
the written history of the greater affairs of 
Toulouse and Foix. Soon religious and civil 
troubles began to press and much of Couserans 



St. Lizier and the Couserans 213 

'-^ 

gave allegiance to neighbouring feudalities, 
with the result that from the times of Henri IV 
to those of the Revolution, not an historical 
event of note has been chronicled. 

As one approaches St. Girons, the metrop- 
olis of the Couserans, by road from Foix, he 
passes through the Grotto of the Mas d'Azil, 
a great underground cave, through which runs 
a splendid carriage road. It is a work unique 
among the masterpieces of the road builders 
of France. This subterranean roadway has, 
perhaps, a length of half a kilometre and a 
width of from ten to thirty metres. It is not 
a stupendous work nor an artistic one, but a 
most curious one. This Grotte de Mas d'Azil 
with its great domed gallery can only be lik- 
ened to a Byzantine cupola. This much is nat- 
ural; but a roadway beneath this noble roof 
and a parapet alongside are the work of man. 

It gave shelter to two thousand persons 
under its damp vault during the wars of relig- 
ion, in 1625, when the neighbouring Calvinists 
here defended themselves successfully against 
the Catholic army of invaders. The cavern was 
practically a fortress, then, and an old atlas 
of the time shows its precise position as being 
directly behind a little fortified or walled town, 
the same which exists to-day. The roadway 



214 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

on this old map was marked, as now on the 
maps of the ]£tat-Major, as running directly 
through the '* Roch du Mas," and an engraved 
foot-note to the plate states that the '' riviere 
passe dessoubs ceste montagne." 

When Richelieu triumphed against the Prot- 
estants he razed the fortifications of Mas d'Azil, 
as he did others elsewhere. The little town 
is really delightfully disposed to-day, and has 
a quaint, old domed church and a fine shaded 
promenade which would make an admirable 
stage-setting for a mediaeval costume play. 

At Montjoie, on the road to Foix, is a curi- 
ous relic of the past. In the fourteenth century 
it was a famous walled town of considerable 
pretensions; but, to-day, a population of a 
hundred find it hard work to earn a livelihood. 
The square, battlemented walls of the little 
bourg are still in evidence, flanked with four 
tourelles at the corners and pierced with two 
gates. Architecturally it is a melange of Ro- 
manesque and Gothic. 

Castelnau-Durban lies midway between St. 
Girons and Foix, and possesses still, with some 
semblance to its former magnificence though 
it be a ruin, an old thirteenth-century chateau. 
At Rimont, near by, is an ancient hastide roy- 
ale, a sort of kingly rest-house or hunting lodge 



St. Lizier and the Couserans 215 

of olden days. The bastide and the cabanon 
are varieties of small country-houses, one or 
the other of which may be found scattered 
everywhere through the south of France, from 
the Pyrenees to the Alps. They are low-built, 
square, red-tiled, little houses, a sort of abbre- 
viated Italian villa, though their architecture 
is more Spanish than Italian. They are the 
punctuating notes of every southern French 
landscape. 

One cannot improve on an unknown French 
poet's description of the bastide: — 

« Monuments f astueux d'orgueil ou de puissance, 
Hotels, palais, chateaux, votre magnificence 
N'6blouit pas mes yeux, n'inspire pas mes chants. 
Je ne veux c^l6brer que la maison des champs, 
La riaute bastide . . ." 

St. Girons has a particularly advantageous 
and attractive site at the junction of two rivers, 
the Lez and the Salat, and of four great trans- 
versal roadways. The traffic with the Spanish 
Pyrenean provinces has always been very 
great, particularly in cattle, as St. Girons is 
the nearest large town in France to the Span- 
ish frontier. 

A century ago a traveller described St. Gi- 
rons as a '' dull crumbling town," but he died 



216 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

too soon, this none too acute observer. It was 
near-by St. Lizier that had begnn to crumble, 
while St. Girons itself was already prospering 
anew. To-day it has arrived. Its definitive 
position has been established. Its affairs aug- 
ment continually; and it is one of the few 
towns in these parts which has added fifty per 
cent to its population in the last fifty years. 

St. Girons is without any remarkably inter- 
esting monuments, though the town is delight- 
fully situated and laid out and there is real 
character and picturesqueness in its tree-lined 
promenade along the banks of the Salat. Orig- 
inally St. Girons was known as Bourg-sous- 
Ville, being but a dependency of St. Lizier. 
To-day the state of things is exactly reversed. 
In the twelfth century it came to have a name 
of its own, after that of the Apostle Geronius. 
In the Quartier Villefranche, at St. Girons, on 
the left bank of the Salat, is the Palais de Jus- 
tice, once the old chateau of the seigneurs, which 
architecturally ranks second to the old ]£glise 
de St. Vallier with its great Romanesque door- 
way and its crenelated tower like that of a 
donjon. 

St. Lizier, just out of St. Girons on the St. 
Gauden's road, is one of the medieeval glories 
which exist to-day only in their historic past. 




.SV. Lizicr 



St. Lizier and the Couserans 217 

Its chateau, its cathedral and its old stone 
bridge are unfortunately so weather-worn as to 
be all but crumbled away; but they still point 
plainly to the magnificent record that once was 
theirs. Once St. Lizier was the principal city 
of Couserans, a region which included all that 
country lying between the basins of the Ariege 
and the Garonne. In Roman days it was an 
important strategic point and bore the impos- 
ing name of Lugdunwm Consoranorum. Later 
it became a bishopric and preserved all its pre- 
rogatives up to the Eevolution. 

The cloister of the twelfth and fourteenth- 
century cathedral has been classed as one of 
those Monuments Historiques over which the 
French Minister of Beaux Arts has a loving 
care. The chateau of other days was used also 
as an episcopal palace, but has undergone to- 
day the desecration of serving as a madhouse. 

At each step, as one strolls through St. Li- 
zier, he comes upon relics of the past, posterior 
even to the coming of Christianity. On the 
height of the hill were four pagan temples, one 
each to the honour of Minerva, Mars, Jupiter 
and Janus. Only a simple souvenir of the lat- 
ter remains to complete the story of their 
former existence as set forth in the chronicles. 
There is a two-visaged " Janus-head," disco v- 



218 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

ered in 1771, which is now in the old cathe- 
dral. 

To the north of St. Lizier, a dozen kilometres 
or so, is the Chateau de Noailhan, dating from 
the fifteenth century, which is admirable from 
an architectural point of view. 

Above St. Grirons, in the valley of the Salat, 
is the quaint little city of Seix. It is delightful 
because it has not been exploited; and if you 
do not mind a twenty-kilometre diligence ride 
from St. Girons, if travelling by rail, it will 
give you a practical demonstration of a ** rest- 
cure." The ruins of the Chateaux de Mirabel 
and La Garde, close to the Pont de la Saule, 
recall the fact that Charlemagne confided the 
guarding of these upper valleys of the Couse- 
rans to the inhabitants of Seix, and gave it the 
dignity of being called a '' Ville Roy ale.'* 

In the Vallee d'Ustou one may see a real 
novelty in industry which the mountaineers 
have developed, and a monopoly at that. Think 
of that, ye who talk of the uncommercialism 
of effete Europe ! 

It is the trade in dancing bears which the 
montagnards of Ustou control. Not great, 
overbearing, ugly, unwholesome-looking ani- 
mals like grizzlies, nor sleek pale polar bears, 
but spicy-looking, cinnamon-coloured little 




Dla-ncbe M.*-M.Q.r\.u.i 

" 1 5 1> 



Trained Bears of the Vallee d'Vstou 



St. Lizier and the Couserans 219 

bears, as gentle apparently as a shaggy New- 
foundland, and frequently not much bigger. 
When one does grow out of his class, and rises 
head and shoulders above his fellows as he 
stands on his hind legs, he is a moth-eaten, 
crotchety specimen whose only usefulness is as 
a '' come-on," or a preceptor, for the younger 
ones. 

There's nothing difficult about teaching a 
bear to dance. At least one so judges from 
watching the process here; but one needs pa- 
tience, a will, and must not know fear, for even 
a dancing bear has wicked teeth and claws; 
and, his strength, if dormant, is dangerous if 
he once suspects he is master and not slave. 
Above all the teeth are a great and valuable 
asset to a dancing bear. A bear who simply 
struts around and holds his muzzle in air is 
put in the very rear row of the chorus and 
called a sal cochon, but one who grins and 
shows his teeth has possibilities in his profes- 
sion that the other will never dream of. The 
bears of the country fairs of France are all 
descended from the best families of Ustou; 
and, whatever their lack of grace may be in 
the dance, certainly " personne est plus amour 
reux dans la soriete." 

All through Couserans, particularly along 



220 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

the river valleys, are piquant little villages 
and smiling peasant folk, ever willing to pass 
the time of day with the stranger, or discuss 
the good old days before the railroad came to 
St. Girons, and when St. Lizier was looked upon 
as being a possible religious capital of the 
world. 

In the high valleys, above St. Girons, in Beth- 
male in particular, one finds still a. reminiscence 
of the past in the picturesque costumes of the 
peasants not yet fallen before the advance of 
Paris modes. The men wear short red or blue 
breeches, embroidered with arabesques down 
the sides, and, on fete-days, a big broad- 
brimmed hat, and a vest of embroidered ve- 
lours, with great turned-up sabots, something 
like those of the Ariege. 

The women have a sort of red bonnet coiffe, 
held tight around the head by a kind of diadem 
of ribbon, and a great white-winged cap tum- 
bling to the shoulders. The skirt is short with 
very many pleats, and there is also the tradi- 
tional sabot. This is the best description the 
author, a mere man, can give. 

High up in this same valley Is the little vil- 
lage of Biert, once the civil capital of the re- 
gion, as was St. Lizier the religious capital. 



St. Lizier and the Couserans 221 

To-day there are between three and four thou- 
sand people here. Just above is the Col de 
Port, 1,249 metres high, leading into the water- 
shed of the Ariege and the Comte de Foix. 



CHAPTER XIV 

THE PAYS DE COMMINGES 

On the first steep slope of the Pyrenees, 
bounded on one side by Couserans and on the 
other by Bigorre, is the ancient Comte de Com- 
minges, the territory of the Convenes, whose 
capital was Lugdunum Convenarum, estab- 
lished by Pompey from the remains left by the 
legions of Sertorius. Under the Roman em- 
perors the capital became an opulent city, but 
to-day, known as St. Bertrand de Comminges, 
but seven hundred people think enough of it to 
call it home. 

It possesses a historic and picturesque site 
unequalled in the region, but Luchon, Montre- 
jeau and St. Gaudens have grown at the ex- 
pense of the smaller town, and its grand old 
cathedral church and ancient ramparts are little 
desecrated by alien strangers. 

The view of Comminges from a distance is 
uncommon and startling. One may see across 
a valley the outline of every rock and tree and 
housetop of the little town clustered about the 

222 



The Pays de Comminges 223 

knees of the swart, sturdy church of St. Ber- 
trand of Coniminges, one of the architectural 
glories of the mediaBval builder. The moun- 
tains rise roundly all about and give a rough 
frame to an exquisite picture. 

What the precise date of the foundation of 
Comminges may be no one seems to know, 
though St. Jerome has said that it was a city 
built first by the montagnards in 79 b. c. This 
sacred chronicler called the founders '' bri- 
gands," but authorities agree that he meant 
merely mountain dwellers. 

There is a profuse history of all this region 
still existing in the archives of the Departe- 
ment, which ranks among the most important 
of all those of feudal times still preserved in 
France. Only those of the Seine (Paris), Nor- 
mandy (Rouen) and Provence (Marseilles and 
Aix) surpass it. 

In autumn St. Bertrand de Comminges is an 
enchanted spot, with all the colours of the rain- 
bow showing in its ensemble. It is grandly 
superb, the panorama which unrolls from the 
terrace of the old chateau, succeeding ranges 
of the Pyrenees rising one behind the other, 
cloud or snow-capped in turn. St Bertrand, 
the ancient bishop's seat of Comminges, with 
the fortress walls surrounding the town an3 



224 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

towering cathedral is, in a way, a suggestion 
of St. Michel's Mount off the Normandy coast, 
except there is no neighbouring sea. It is a 
townlet on a pinnacle. 

The constructive elements of the grim ram- 
parts are Roman, but mediasval additions and 
copings have been interpolated from time to 
time so that they scarcely look their age. In 
the Ville Haute were built the cathedral and 
its dependencies, the chateau of the seigneurs, 
and the houses of the noblesse. Beyond these, 
but within another encircling wall, were the 
houses of the adherents of the counts; while 
outside of this wall lived the mere hangers-on. 
This was the usual feudal disposition of things. 
Eighty thousand people once made up the pop- 
ulation of St. Bertrand. And three great high- 
ways, to Agen, to Dax, and to Toulouse, led 
therefrom. This was the epoch of its great 
prosperity. It is one of the most ancient Eo- 
man colonies in Aquitaine, and its history has 
been told by many chroniclers, one of the least 
profuse being St. Gregoire, Archbishop of 
Tours. 

After a frightful massacre in the ninth cen- 
tury the city, its churches, its chateau and its 
houses became deserted. It was a century later 
that Saint Bertrand de I'lsle, who had just been 




Sf. BrrffdinJ dc Co \u ui in^es 



The Pays de Comminges 225 

sanctified by his uncle the archbishop at Auch, 
undertook to reconstruct the old city on the 
ruins of its past. He re-established first the 
fallen bishopric, and elected himself bishop. 
This gave him power, and he started forthwith 
to build the singularly dignified and beautiful 
cathedral which one sees to-day. Comminges 
was made a comte in the tenth century, and 
the fief contained two hundred and eighty-eight 
towns and villages and nine castellanies, all 
owing allegiance to the Comte de Comminges. 
The episcopal jurisdiction varied somewhat 
from these limits, for it included twenty Span- 
ish communes beyond the frontier as well. 

One enters St. Bertrand to-day by the great 
arched gateway, or Porte Majou, which bears 
over its lintel the arms of the Cardinal de Foix. 
As a grand historical monument St. Bertrand 
commences well. Narrow, crooked, little streets 
climb to the platform terrace above where sits 
the cathedral. It is a sad, grim journey, this 
mounting through the deserted streets, with 
here and there a Gothic or Renaissance column 
built helter-skelter into a house front, and the 
suggestion of a barred Gothic window or a deli- 
cate Renaissance doorway now far removed 
from its original functions. At last one reaches 
a great mass of tumbled stones which one is 



226 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

told is the ruin of the episcopal palace built 
by St. Bertrand himself. But what would you ? 
It is just this atmosphere of antiquity that one 
comes here to breathe, and certainly a more 
musty and less worldly one it would be difficult 
to find outside the catacombs of Rome. 

Another city gate, the Porte Cabirole, still 
keeps the flame of medirevalism alive; and, 
near by, is the most interesting architectural 
bit of all, a diminutive, detached tower-stair- 
way, dating at least from the fifteenth century. 
It is an admirable architectural note, quite in 
contrast with all the grimness and sadness of 
the rest of the ruins. 

Opposite the entrance to the walled city is a 
curious monumental gateway, better described 
as a harhacane, or perhaps a great watch-tower, 
through which one has still to pass. The upper 
town had no source of water supply, so a well 
was cut down in the rock, and this tower served 
as its protection. There is another gate, still, 
in the encircling city walls, the third, the Porte 
de Herrison. After this, in making the round, 
one comes again to the Porte Majou, by which 
one entered. 

Rising high above all, on the top of the hill, 
as does the tower of the abbey on St. Michel's 
Mount, is the great, grim, newly coiffed tower 



The Pays de Comminges 227 

of the cathedral of St. Bertrand, one of the 
most amply endowed and luxuriously installed 
minor cathedrals in all France. Its descrip- 
tion in detail must be had from other works. 
It suffices here to state that the cathedral is of 
the town, and the town is of it to such an inter- 
mingled extent that it is almost impossible to 
separate the history of one from that of the 
other. The site of the cathedral is that of the 
old Roman citadel. Of the edifice built by St. 
Bertrand nothing remains but the first arches 
of the nave and the great westerly tower, really 
more like a donjon tower than a church steeple. 
In fact it is not a steeple at all. The whole 
aspect of St. Bertrand de Comminges, the city, 
the cathedral and the surroundings is militant, 
and looks as though it might stand off an army 
as well as undertake the saving of men's souls. 

The altar decorations, sculptured wood and 
carved stalls of the interior of this great church 
are very beautiful. Its like is not to be seen 
in France outside of Amiens, Albi and Rodez. 
The cloister, too, is superb. 

The happenings of the city since its recon- 
struction were not many, save as they referred 
to religion. Two bishops of the see became 
Popes, Clement V and Innocent VIII. The end 
of the sixteenth century brought the religious 



228 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

wars, and Huguenots and Calvinists took, and 
retook, the city in turn. With the Revolution 
came times nearly as terrible ; and, in the new 
order of things following upon the Concordat, 
the bishopric was definitely suppressed. The 
few hundred inhabitants of to-day live in a city 
almost as dead as Pompeii or Les Baux. 

The word Comminges signifies an assembly 
inhabited by the Convenae in the time of Caesar. 
The inhabitants of feudal times were known as 
Commingeois. '' The Commingeois are nat- 
urally warriors," wrote St. Bertrand de Com- 
minges, and from this it is not difficult to fol- 
low the evolution of their dainty little feudal 
city, though difficult enough to find the reason 
for its practical desertion to-day. 

The Comtes de Comminges were an able and 
vigorous race, if we are to believe the records 
they left behind. There was one, Loup-Aznar, 
who lived in 932, who rode horse-back at the 
age of a hundred and five, and one of his de- 
scendants was married seven times. It was a 
Comte de Comminges, in the time of Louis XIV, 
who was compared by that monarch to a great 
cannon ball, whose chief efficiency was its size. 
Subsequently cannon balls, in France, came to 
be called " Comminges." Not a very great 
fame this, but still fame, and it was still for 



The Pays de Comminges 229 

their warlike spirit that the Conuningeois were 
commended. 

Jean Bertrand, a one-time Archbishop of 
Comminges, became a Cardinal of France upon 
the recommendation of Henri II. The king 
afterwards confessed that he was persuaded 
to urge his appointment by Diane de Poitiers, 
who was distributing her favours rather freely 
just at that time. 

The " Memoires du Comte de Comminges " 
was the title borne by one of the most cele- 
brated works of fiction of the eighteenth cen- 
tury — a predecessor of the Dumas style of 
romance. It is a work which has often been 
confounded by amateur students of French 
history with the " Memoires du Philippe de 
Commines," who lived in another era alto- 
gether. The former was fiction, pure and sim- 
ple, with its scene laid in the little Pyrenean 
community, while the latter was fact woven 
around the life of one who lived centuries later, 
in Flanders. 



CHAPTER XV 

BBAEN AND THE BEAENAIS 

The Bearnais and the Basques have no his- 
torical monuments in their country anterior to 
the Roman invasion, and for that matter Ro- 
man monuments themselves are nearly non- 
existent. Medals and coins have been occasion- 
ally found which tell a story neglected by the 
chroniclers, or fill a gap which would be other- 
wise unbridged, but in the main there is little 
remaining of a period so far remote, save infre- 
quent fragmentary examples of Arab or Sara- 
cen art. Of later times as well, the splendid 
building eras of Gothic and Renaissance archi- 
tecture, there is but little that is monumental, 
or indeed remarkable for richness. Architec- 
tural styles were strong and hardy, but most 
often they were a melange of foreign forms, 
combined and presented anew by local builders. 
This makes for picturesqueness at any rate, 
so, taken as a whole, what the extreme south- 
west of France lacks in architectural magnifi- 

230 



Beam and the Bearnais 231 

cence it makes up for in quaintness and variety, 
and above all environment. 

The historic memories hovering around 
Beam and Navarre are so many and varied 
that each will have to establish them for him- 
self if any pretence at completeness is to be 
made, and then the sum total will fall far short 
of reality. All are dear to the Bearnais them- 
selves, from the legendary first sip of wine of 
the infant Henri to the more real, but of still 
doubtful authenticity, tortoise - shell cradle. 
One absorbs them all readily enough, on the 
spot, or in any perusal of French history of 
the Middle Ages, and the names of the Cen- 
tulles, the Gastons, the Marguerites and the 
Henris are ever occurring and recurring which- 
ever by-path one takes. 

The province of Beam came to the Centulle 
house in the ninth century, and passed by mar- 
riage (in 1170) to that of Moncade, from which 
family it was transferred as a dowiy, in 1290, 
to Bernard III, Comte de Foix, on condition 
that Beam and Foix should be united in per- 
petuity. Gaston IX, a later descendant, by 
marrying Elenore de Navarre, in 1434, united 
the two sovereignties, and Catherine de Foix, 
his sister, in turn made over her hereditary 



232 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

rights to her husband, Comte de Pentievre et 
de Perigord. 

In spite of this, Beam and the Bearnais have 
always kept a distinct and separate identity 
from that of their allies and associates, and 
Henri, Prince de Beam, is as often thought of 
by the Bearnais as Henri, Roi de Navarre, even 
though the two titles belonged to one and the 
same person. 

The most brilliant epoch of Beam was that 
which began with Henri II and Marguerite 
de Valois. The old Gothic castle at Pau had 
become metamorphosed into a Renaissance pal- 
ace, and the most illustrious princess of her 
century drew thither the most reputed savants, 
litterateurs, and artists in the world, until the 
little Pyrenean capital became known as the 
" Parnasse Bearnais." Jean d'Albret and 
Catherine were succeeded by their eldest son, 
who became Henri II of Navarre, and Henri I 
of Beam. This prince was born in the month 
of August, 1503, and was given the name of 
Henri because it was the name of one of two 
faithful German pilgrims who passed by, en 
route to pay their devotions at the shrine of 
St. Jacques de Compestelle. The pilgrims were 
given hospitality by the king of Navarre, and, 
because it was thought meet that the newborn 



Beam and the Beamais 233 

prince should bear a worthy, even though hum- 
ble name, he was baptized thus, though the 
proud countrymen of Beam did resent it. The 
circumstance is curiously worthy of record. 

Beam and Navarre are above all other prov- 
inces of France proud indeed of the great 
names of history, and Henri Quatre and Gas- 
ton Phcebus were hung well on the line in the 
royal portrait galleries of their time. The first 
was more of a good ruler than a gallant chev- 
alier, and the second possessed a regal person- 
ality which gave him a place almost as exalted 
as that of his brother prince. Together they 
gave an indescribable lustre to the country of 
their birth. 

In erecting the statue of Henri IV in the 
Place Royale at Pau the Bearnais rendered 
homage to the most illustrious son of Beam. 
Without Henri Quatre one would not know that 
Beam had ever existed, for it was he who car- 
ried its name and fame afar. Luchon, Biarritz 
and Pau are known of men and women of all 
nations as tourist places of a supreme rank, 
but the mind ever wanders back to the days 
of the gallant, rough, unpolished Henri who 
went up to Paris and, in spite of opposition, 
became the first Bourbon king of the French 
after the Valois line was exhausted. 



234 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

The Bearnais — the moTintaineers, as they 
were often contemptuously referred to at the 
capital — had a time of it making their way at 
Paris, for there was a rivalry and jealousy 
against the southerners at Paris which was 
only explainable by traditionary prejudice. 

When Catherine de Medici was making the 
first efforts to marry off her daughter Mar- 
guerite to Henri, Prince of Beam, the feeling 
was at its height. It is curious to remark in 
this connection that the two queens of Navarre 
by the name of Marguerite were separated by 
only a half century of time, and both were to 
become famous in the world of letters, the first 
for her " Heptameron " and the second for 
her '' Memoires." 

The daughter of the Medici would have none 
of the rough prince of Beam and told her 
mother so plainly, resenting the fact that he 
was a Protestant as much as anything. 

" My daughter, listen," said the queen 
mother. *' This marriage is indispensable for 
reasons of state. The king, your brother, and 
I myself, like the king of Navarre as little as 
you do. That little kingdom in the high valleys 
of the Pyrenees is a veritable thorn in our sides, 
but by some means or other we must pluck it 
out." 



B^arn and the Beamais 235 

* ' I shall go to Nerac, in Gascony, ' ' the queen 
mother continued, '' to conclude a treaty with 
my sister, Reine Jeanne, the mother of Henri 
de Beam. When an alliance is concluded be- 
tween the queen of Navarre and myself your 
marriage shall take place." This was final! 

Tradition — or perhaps it is a fact, though 
the average traveller won't remark it — says 
that the Bearnais are an irascible and jealous 
people. Proud they are, but there are no ex- 
ternal evidences to show that they are more 
irascible or jealous than any other folk one 
meets in the French countryside. In the val- 
leys the type is more delicate than that of 
the inhabitants of the mountain slopes, and 
throughout they are fervidly religious without 
being in the least fanatical. 

The same tradition that says the Beamais 
are rough, irascible spirits, says also that they 
seek for a summary personal vengeance rather 
than let the process of law take its course. 
There's something of philosophy in this, if it's 
true, but again it is reiterated there are no 
visible signs that the peasant of Beam is of 
the knife-drawing class of humanity to which 
belong Sicilians and gypsies. The writer on 
more than one occasion has been stalled in the 
Pyrenees while blazing an automobile trail up 



236 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

some valley road that he ought not to have 
attempted, and has found the Bearnais a faith- 
ful, willing worker in helping him out of a hole 
(this is literal), and glad indeed to accept such 
an honorarium as was bestowed upon him. 
Nothing of brigandage in this! 

The passing times change men and manners, 
and when it is recorded by the prefet of the 
Basses-Pyrenees that no department ever had 
so much law-business going on before in its 
courts, it shows at least that if the Bearnais 
do have their little troubles among themselves, 
they are now a law-loving, law-abiding people. 

They are good livers and drinkers too, of 
much the same stamp as the gallant Grascons, 
of whom Dumas wrote. It was in a Bearnais 
inn that the Prince de Conti saw the following 
couplet chalked upon the wall : 

" Je m'apuelle Robineau, 
Et je bois in on vin sans eaux." 

Whereupon he added : 

" Et moi, Prince de Conti, 
Sans eaux je le bois aussi." 

The sentiment is not very high; window- 
pane poetry and the like never does soar; but 



Beam and the Beamais 237 

it is significant of the good living of past and 
present times in France, and in these parts in 
particular. 

The peasant dress of the Beamais is the 
same throughout all the communes. They wear 
a woollen head-dress, something like that of 
the Basques. It is round, generally brown, and 
usually drawn down over the left ear in a most 
degage fashion. The student of Paris' Latin 
Quarter is a poor copy of a Beamais so far as 
his cap goes. In some parts of the plain below 
the foot-hills of the Pyrenees, — around Tarbes 
for example, — the cap is replaced by a little 
round hat, a sort of a cross between that some- 
times worn by the Breton, and a '' bowler " 
of the vintage of '83. 

A long blouse-like coat, or jacket, is worn, 
and woollen breeches and gaiters, of such varie- 
gated colouring as appeals to each individual 
himself. In style the costume of the Beamais 
is national; in colour it is anything you like 
and individual, but mostly brown or gray of 
those shades which were the progenitors of 
what we have come to know as khaki. 

The shepherds and cattle guardians, indeed 
all of the inhabitants of the higher valleys and 
slopes, dress similarly, but in stuffs of much 
coarser texture and heavier weight, and wear 



238 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

quite as much clothing in summer as in the cold- 
est days of winter. 

The Bearnais speak a patois, or idiom, com- 
posed of the structural elements of Celtic, Latin 
and Spanish. It is not a language, like the 
Breton or the Basque, but simply a hybrid 
means of expression, difficult enough for out- 
siders to become proficient in, but not at all 
unfamiliar in sound to one used to the expres- 
sions of the Latin races. It is more like the 
Provengal of the Bouches-du-Ehone than any- 
thing else, but very little like the Eomance 
tongue of Languedoc. 

In cadence the Bearnais patois is sweet and 
musical, and the literature of the tongue, 
mostly pastoral poetry, is of a beauty ap- 
proaching the epilogues of Virgil. 

The patois is the speech of the country peo- 
ple, and French that of the town dwellers. The 
educated classes may speak French, but, almost 
without exceptions, they know also the patois, 
as is the case in Provence, where the patois is 
reckoned no patois at all, but a real tongue, and 
has the most profuse literature of any of the 
anciently spoken tongues of France. 

The following lines in the Bearnais patois 
show its possibilities. They were sung when 



Beam and the Bearnais 239 

Jeanne de Navarre was giving birth to the in- 
fant prince who was to become Henri IV. 

" Nouste Dame deii cap deii poiin, 

Adyudat-me a d'acquest'hore; 

Pre gats an Dioii deii ceil 

Qu'etnboulle hie delioura ceii, 

D'u maynat qu'em hassie lou doun 

Tou d'inqu' aii haul dous mounts I'implore 

Adyudat-me a d'acquest'hore." 

The significance of these lines was that the 
queen prayed God that she might be delivered 
of her child without agony, but above all that 
it might be born a boy. 

Beam was fairly populous in the old days 
with a well distributed population, and the 
towns were all relatively largely inhabited. 
Now, in some sections, as in the Pays de Bare- 
tous, for example, the region is losing its pop- 
ulation daily, and in half a century the figures 
have decreased something like thirty per cent. 
Like many other Pyrenean valleys the popula- 
tion has largely emigrated to what they call 
'' les Ameriques," meaning, in this case. South 
or Central America, never North America. 
Buenos Ayres they know, also '' la ville de 
Mexique," but New York is a vague, meaning- 
less term to the peasant of the French Pyre- 
nees. 



240 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

The hastides, — the country houses, often for- 
tified chateaux witli dependencies, — originally 
a Bearnais institution, often remained stagnant 
hamlets or villages instead of developing into 
prosperous towns as they did elsewhere in the 
Midi of France, particularly in Gascogne and 
Languedoc. Many a time their sites had been 
chosen fortunately, but instead of a bourg 
growing up around them they remained iso- 
lated and backward for no apparent reason 
whatever. 

This has been the fate of Labastide-Ville- 
franche in Beam. One traces readily enough 
the outlines of the original hastide, but more 
than all else marvels at the great, four-storied 
donjon tower, planned by the father of the il- 
lustrious Gaston Phoebus of Foix. This senti- 
nel tower stood at the juncture of the princi- 
palities of Beam, Bidache and Navarre. Gas- 
ton Phoebus finished this great donjon with the 
same generous hand with which he endowed 
everything he touched, and it ranks among the 
best of its era wherever found. The hastide 
and its dependencies grew up around the foot 
of this tower, but there is nothing else to give 
the little town — or more properly village — 
any distinction whatever; it still remains 
merely a delightful old-world spot, endowed 



Beam and the Beamais 241 

with a charming situation. It calls itself a 
rendezvous commercial, but beyond being a cat- 
tle-market of some importance, thanks to its 
being the centre of a spider's web of roads, 
not many outside the immediate neighbour- 
hood have ever heard its name mentioned, or 
seen it in print. 

In this same connection it is to be noted that 
all of Beam and the Basque provinces are cele- 
brated for their cattle. What Arabia is to the 
horse, the Pyrenean province of Beam, more 
especially the gracious valley of Baretous, 
called the " Jardin de Beam," is to the bovine 
race. 

Another delightful, romantic comer of Beam 
is the valley of the Aspe. Urdos is its prin- 
cipal town, and here one sees ancient customs 
as quaint as one is likely to find hereabouts. 
Urdos is but a long-drawn-out, one-street vil- 
lage along the banks of the Gave d'Aspe, but 
it is lively and animated with all the gaiety of 
the Latin life. On a fete day omnibuses, coun- 
try carts, donkeys, mules and even oxen bring 
a very respectable crowd to town, and there 
is much merry-making of a kind which knows 
not modern amusements in the least degree. 
ContinuoTis dnncing, — all day and all night — 
interspersed with eating and drinking suffices. 



242 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

Something of the sort was going on, the author 
and artist thought, when they arrived at five 
on a delightful June day; but no, it was noth- 
ing but the marriage feast of a local official, 
and though all the rooms of the one establish- 
ment which was dignified by the name of a 
hotel were taken shelter was found at an hum- 
ble inn kept by a worthy widow. She certainly 
was worthy, for she charged for dinner, lodg- 
ing, and coffee in the morning, for two persons, 
but the small sum of six francs and didn't think 
the automobile, which was lodged in the shed 
with the sheep and goats and cows, was an ex- 
cuse for sticking on a single sou. She was 
more than worthy; she was gentle and kind, 
for when a fellow traveller, a French Alpinist, 
would find a guide to show him the way across 
the mountain on the morrow, and so on down 
into the Val d'Ossau, she expostulated and told 
him that the witless peasant he had engaged 
to show him the road had never been, to her 
knowledge, out of his own commune. Her 
interrogation of the unhappy, self-named 
'' guide " was as sharp a bit of cross-question- 
ing as one sees out of court. '^ No, he knew 
not the route, but all one had to do was to go 
up the mountain first and then down the other 
side." All very well, but which other side? 



Beam and the Bearnais 243 

There were many ramifications. He was sure 
of being able to find his way, he said, but the 
Frenchman became suspicious, and the bustling 
landlady found another who did know, and 
would work by some other system than the 
rule of thumb, which is a very bad one for 
mountain climbing. This time the intrepid 
tourist found a real guide and not a mere '' cul- 
tivateur," as the mistress of the inn contemp- 
tuously called the first. 



CHAPTER XVI 

OF THE HISTORY AND TOPOGRAPHY OP BEARN" 

The old Vicomte de Beam lay snug within 
tlie embrace of the Pyrenees between Foix, 
Comminges and Basse Navarre. It was fur- 
ther divided into various small districts whose 
entities were later swallowed by the parent 
state, and still later by the royal domain under 
the rule of Henry IV. 

There is one of these divisions, which not 
every traveller through the smiling valleys of 
the Pyrenees knows either by name or history. 
It is the Pays de Bidache, formerly the prin- 
cipality of Bidache, a tiny kingdom whose sov- 
ereign belonged to the house of G-rammont. 
This little principality was analogous to that 
of Liechtenstein, lying between Switzerland and 
Austria. Nothing remains but the title, and 
the Grammonts, who figure in the noblesse of 
France to-day, are still by right Princes de 
Bidache, the eldest of the family being also 
Due de Guiche. The chateau of the Grammonts 
at Bidache, which is a town of eight or nine 

244 



History and Topography of Beam 245 

hundred inhabitants, sits high on the hill over- 
looldng the town. It is in ruins, but, neverthe- 
less, there are some very considerable vestiges 
remaining of the glories that it possessed in the 
times of Henri IV when the house of Grammont 
was at its greatest height. 

In the little village church are the tombs of 
the Sires de Grammont, notably that of the 
Marechal Antoine III, who died in 1678. 

Bidache was made a duche-pairie for the 
family De Grammont, who, by virtue of their 
letters patent, were absolute sovereigns. The 
Princes de Bidache, up to the Eevolution, exer- 
cised all the rights of a chief of state, a curious 
latter day survival of feudal powers. 

Tradition plays no small part even to-day in 
the affairs of the De Grammonts, and the old 
walls of the family chateau could tell much that 
outsiders would hardly suspect. One fact has 
leaked out and is on public record. The sons 
born in the family are usually named Agenor, 
and the daughters Corisande, names illustrious 
in the golden days of Bearnais history. 

Throughout all this ancient principality of 
Bidache the spirit of feudality has been effaced 
in these later Republican days, a thing the 
kings of France and Navarre and the parle- 
ment de Pau could not accomplish. As in other 



246 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

parts of Beam and the Basque provinces, it 
is now entirely swallowed by '^ la nationalite 
frangaise." 

The Due de Grammont still possesses the 
Chateau de Guiche, and the non-forfeitable 
titles of his ancestors; but, virtually, he is no 
more than any other citizen. 

Just north from Bidache, set whimsically 
on a hillside above the Adour, is the feudal 
village of Hastingues. It was an English crea- 
tion, founded by John of Hastings towards 
1300, for Edward I. It is crowded to the very 
walls with curious old houses in which its in- 
habitants live with much more tranquillity than 
in feudal times. The fourteenth-century forti- 
fications are still much in evidence. 

Up the river from Hastingues is Peyreho- 
rade, or in the old Bearnais tongue Perorade, 
literally roche-percee. It is the metropolis of 
the region, and has a population of twenty-five 
hundred simple folk who live tight little lives, 
and not more than once in a generation get fifty 
miles away from their home. 

The Vicomtes d'Orthe fortified the city in 
olden times, and the ruined chateau-fort of As- 
premont on the hillside overlooking the river 
valley and the town tells the story of feudal 
combat far better than the restored and made- 



History and Topography of Beam 247 



over edifices of a contemporary period. Its 
pentagonal donjon of the sixteenth century is 
as grim and imposing a tower of its class as 
may be conceived. 

Below, along the river bank, is the sixteenth- 
century chateau of Montreal, its walls still 
standing flanked with grim, heavy, uncoiffed 
towers. It is all sadly disfigured, like its fellow 
on the heights; but the very sadness of it all 
makes it the more emphatic as a historical 
monument of the past. 

In the villages round about the dominant in- 
dustry appears to be sabot-making, as in the 
Basque country it is the making of espadrilles. 
Each is a species of shoe-making which knows 
not automatic machinery, nor ever will. 

Lying between Basse Navarre and Beam was 
the Pays de Soule, with Mauleon and Tardets 
as its chief centres of population. The district 
has a bit of feudal history which is interesting. 
It was a region of mediocre extent — not more 
than thirty leagues square — but with a polit- 
ical administration more complex than any 
Gerrymandering administration has dared to 
conceive since. 

The district was divided into three Messa- 
geries, Haute Soule, Basse Soule and Arbailles. 
Each of these divisions had at its head a func- 



248 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

tionary called a Messager, and each was in turn 
divided again into smaller parcels of territory 
called Vies, each of which had a sort of beadle 
as an official head, called a Began. 

Popular election put all these officials in 
power, but the Courts of Justice were admin- 
istered by the king of France, as heir to the 
kings of Navarre. 

Mauleon takes its name from the old chateau 
which in the local tongue was known as Malo- 
Leone. Mainly it is of the fifteenth century. 
The interior court has been made over into a 
sort of formal garden, quite out of keeping 
with its former purpose, and by far the most 
impressive suggestions are received from the 
exterior. There are the usual underground 
prisons, or cachots, which the guardian takes 
pleasure in showing. 

From the chemin de ronde, encircling the 
central tower, one has a wide-spread panorama; 
of the Gave de Mauleon as it rushes down from 
its cradle near the crest of the Pyrenees. Mau- 
leon is the centre for the manufacture of the 
local Pyrenean variety of footwear called es- 
padrilles, a sort of a cross between a sandal 
and a moccasin, with a rope sole. The popu- 
lation who work at this trade are mostly Span- 
iards from RouQa, Pamplona and in fact all 



History and Topography of Beam 249 

Aragon. This accounts largely for Mauleon's 
recent increase in population, whilst most other 
neighbouring small towns have reduced their 
ranks. For this reason Mauleon is a phenome- 
non. Paris and the great provincial capitals, 
like Marseilles, Bordeaux and Rouen, constantly 
increase in nmnbers, but most of the small 
towns of France either stand still, or more 
likely fall off in numbers Here at this little 
Pyrenean centre the population has doubled 
since the Franco-Prussian war. 

The historical monuments of Mauleon are not 
many, but the whole ensemble is warm in its 
unassuming appeal to the lover of new sensa- 
tions. The lower town is simply laid out, has 
the conventional tree-bordered promenade of 
a small French town, its fronton de pelote (the 
national game of these parts), a fine old Re- 
naissance house called the Hotel d'Andurrian, 
and a cross-surmounted column which looks 
ancient, and is certainly picturesque. 

Dumas laid the scene of one of his celebrated 
sword and cloak romances here at Mauleon, 
but as the critics say, he so often distorted facts, 
and built chateaux that never existed, the scene 
might as well have been somewhere else. This 
is not saying that they were not romances 
which have been seldom, if ever, equalled. 



250 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

They were indeed the peers of their class. Let 
travellers in France read and re-read such ro- 
mances as the D'Artagnan series, or even 
Monte Cristo, and they will fall far more read- 
ily into the spirit of things in feudal times than 
they will by attempting to digest Carlylean 
rant and guide-book literature made in the 
British Museum. Dumas, at any rate, had the 
genuine spirit of the French, and with it well- 
seasoned everything he wrote. The story of 
Agenor de Mauleon, a real chevalier of romance 
and fable, is very nearly as good as his best. 

Leaving Tardets by the Route d'Oloron, one 
makes his way by a veritable mountain road. 
Its rises and falls are not sharp, but they are 
frequent, and on each side rear small, rocky 
peaks and great mamelons of stone, as in the 
Vald'Enfer of Dante. 

Montory is the first considerable village en 
route, and if French is to-day the national lan- 
guage, one would not think it from anything 
heard here offhand, for the inliabitants speak 
mostly Basque. In spite of this, the inhabit- 
ants, by reason of being under the domination 
of Oloron, consider themselves Bearnais. 

Montory, and the Baretous near-by, have in- 
timate relations with Spain. All Aragon and 
Navarre, at least all those who trade horses 



History and Topography of Beam 251 

and mules, come through here to the markets of 
Gascogne and Poitou. Frequently they don't 
get any farther than Oloron, having sold their 
stock to the Bearnais traders at this point. The 
Bearnais horse-dealers are the worthy rivals of 
the Maquignons of Brittany. 

The next village of the Baretous is Lanne, 
huddled close beneath the flanks of a thousand- 
metre peak, called the Basse-Blanc. Lanne 
possesses a diminutive chateau — called a gen- 
tilhotwmiere in olden times, a name which ex- 
plains itself. The edifice is not a very grand 
or imposing structure, and one takes it to be 
more of a country-house than a stronghold, 
much the same sort of a habitation as one im- 
agines the paternal roof of D'Artagnan, com- 
rade of the Mousquetaires, to have been. 

Aramits, near by, furnished, with but little 
evolution, one of the heroic names of the D 'Ar- 
tagnan romances, it may be remarked. If one 
cares to linger in a historic, romantic literary 
shrine, he could do worse than stay at Aramits' 
Hotel Loubeu. As for the inner man, nothing 
more excellent and simple can be found than 
the fare of this little country inn of a practi- 
cally unknown corner of the Pyrenees. A dili- 
gence runs out from Oloron, fourteen kilo- 
metres, so the place is not wholly inaccessible. 



252 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

Lanne's liumble chateau, nothiug more than a 
residence of a poor, but proud seigneur of 
Gascogne, is an attractive enough monument 
to awaken vivid memories of what may have 
gone on within its walls in the past, and in con- 
nection with the neighbouring venerable church 
and cemetery suggests a romance as well as 
any dumb thing can. 

Aramits is bereft of historical monuments 
save the Mairie of to-day, which was formerly 
the chamber of the syndics who exercised judi- 
ciary functions here (and in the five neighbour- 
ing Adllages) under the orders of the iStats de 
Beam. 

Another delightful and but little known cor- 
ner of Beam is the valley of the Aspe, leading 
directly south from Oloron into the high valley 
of the Pyrenees. The Pas d'Aspe is at an ele- 
vation of seventeen hundred metres. Majestic 
peaks close in the valley and its half a dozen 
curious little towns; and, if one asks a native 
of anything so far away as Pan or Mauleon, 
perhaps fifty miles as the crow flies, he says 
simply: '^ Je ne sois pas! Je ne peiix pas sa- 
voir, moi, je passe tous mes jours dans la valJee 
d'Aspe." Even when you ask the route over 
the mountain, that you may make your way 
back again by the Val d'Ossau, it is the same 



History and Topography of B6arn 253 



thing; they have never been that way them- 
selves and are honest enough, luckily, not to 
give you directions that might put you off the 
road. 

Directly before one is the Pic d'Anie, the 
king mountain of the chain of the Pyrenees 
between the Aspe and the sea to the westward. 

Urdos is the last settlement of size as one 
mounts the valley. Above, the carriage road 
continues fairly good to the frontier, but the 
side roads are mere mule paths and trails. One 
of these zigzags its way craftily up to the Fort 
d 'Urdos or Portalet. Here the grim walls, 
with their machicolations and bastions and re- 
doubts cut out from the rock itself, give one an 
uncanny feeling as if some danger portended; 
but every one assures you that nothing of the 
sort will ever take place between France and 
Spain. This fortification is a very recent work, 
and formidable for its mere size, if not for the 
thiclmess of its walls. It was built in 1838- 
1848, at the time when Lyons, Paris and other 
important French cities were fortified anew. 

War may not be imminent or even probable, 
but the best safeguard against it is protection, 
and so the Spaniards themselves have taken 
pattern of the French and erected an equally 
imposing fortress just over the border at the 



254 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

Col de Lladrones, in the valley of the Aragon, 
and still other batteries at Canfranc. 

One of the topographic and scenic wonders 
of the world which belongs to Beam is the 
Oirque de Gavarnie, that rock-surrounded am- 
phitheatre of waterfalls, icy pools and caverns. 

Of the Cirque de Gavarnie, Victor Hugo 
wrote : — 

*• Quel cyclope savant de I'age 6vanoui, 
Quel gtre monstrueux, plus grand que les idSes, 
A pris un compas haut de cent mille coud6es 
Et, le tournant d'un doigt prodigieux et sftr, 
A trac6 ce grand cercle au niveau de I'azur ? " 

Just below the *' Cirque " is the little vil- 
lage of Gavarnie, which before the Kevolution 
was a property of the Maltese Order, it having 
previously belonged to the Templars. Vestiges 
of their former preshytere and of their lodg- 
ings may be seen. A gruesome relic was for- 
merly kept in the church, but it has fortunately 
been removed to-day. It was no less than a 
dozen bleached skulls of a band of unfortunate 
chevaliers who had been decapitated on the spot 
in some classic encounter the record of which 
has been lost to history. 

Above Gavarnie, on the frontier crest of the 
Pyrenees, is the famous Breche de Roland. 



History and Topography of Beam 255 

One remembers here, if ever, his schoolboy 
days, and the '' Song of Roland " rings ever 
in his ears. 



" High are the hills and huge and dim with cloud ; 
Down in the deeps and living streams are loud." 

The Breche de Roland, with the Col de Ronce- 
vaux, shares the fame of being the most cele- 
brated pass of the Pyrenees. It is a vast rock 
fissure, at least three hundred feet in height. 
As a strategic point of defence against an in- 
vading army or a band of smugglers ten men 
could hold it against a hundred and a hundred 
against a thousand. At each side rises an un- 
scalable rock wall with a height of from three 
to six hundred feet. 

The legend of this famous Breche is this: 
Roland mounted on his charger would have 
passed the Pyrenees, so giving a swift clean 
cut of his famous sword he clave the granite 
wall fair in halves, and for this reason the 
mountaineers have ever called it the Breche 
de Roland. The Tours de Marbore were built 
in the old days to further defend the passage, 
a sort of a trap, or barbican, being a further 
defence on French soil. 

The aspect roundabout is as of a desert, ex- 



256 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

cept that it is mountainous, and the gray ster- 
ile juts of rock and the snows of winter — here 
at least five months of the year — might well 
lead one to imagine it were a pass in the Him- 
alayas. 

Bordering upon Beam on the north is the 
ancient Comte d'Armagnac, a detached corner 
of the Duche de Gascogne, which dates its his- 
tory from the tenth century. It passed to 
Henri d'Albret, king of Navarre, in 1525, and 
by reason of belonging to the crown of Na- 
varre came to France in due course. 

The ancient family of Armagnac had many 
famous names on its roll : the first Comte Ber- 
nard, the founder; Bernard II, who founded 
the Abbey of Saint Pe; Gerard II, successor 
of the preceding and a warrior as well; Ber- 
nard III, canon of Sainte-Marie d'Auch; Ge- 
rard III, who united the Comte de Fezensac 
with Armagnac; Bernard V, who, in league 
with the Comtes de Toulouse, went up against 
Saint Louis; Gerard V, who became an ally 
of the English king; Bernard VI, who warred 
all his life with Eoger-Bernard, Comte de Foix, 
on the subject of the succession of the Vicomte 
de Beam, to which he pretended ; Jean II, who 
terminated the quarrel with the house of Foix ; 
Bernard VI, the most famous warrior of his 



History and Topography of Beam 257 

race, whose name is written in letters of blood 
in the chronicles of the wars of the Armagnacs 
and Jean IV, who was called " Comte par la 
grace de Dieu." 



CHAPTEE XVn 



PAU AND ITS CHATEAU 




Pav, and the Surrounding Country 



Pau, ville d'hiver mondaine et cosmopolite, 
is the way the railway-gnides describe the an- 
cient capital of Beam, and it takes no profound 

2'58 



Pau and Its Chateau 259 



Arms of the City of Pau 



260 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

knowledge of the subtleties of the French lan- 
guage to grasp the significance of the phrase. 
If Pan was riot all this it would be delightful, 
but what with big hotels, golf and tennis clubs, 
and a pack of fox-hounds, there is little of the 
sanctity of romance hanging over it to-day, in 
spite of the existence of the old chateau of 
Henri IV 's Bourbon ancestors. 

The life of Pan, in every phase, is to-day 
ardent and strenuous, with the going and com- 
ing of automobile tourists and fox hunters, 
semi-invalids and what not. In the gallant 
days of old, when princes and their followers 
held sway in the ancient Bearnaise capital, it 
was different, quite different, and the paternal 
chateau of the D 'Albrets was a great deal more 
a typical chateau of its time than it has since 
become. 

If the observation is worth anything to the 
reader '' Pau est la petite Nice des Pyrenees." 
This is complimentary, or the reverse, as one 
happens to think. Pau's attractions are many, 
in spite of the fact that it has become a typical 
tourist resort. 

The chateau itself, even as it stands in its 
reconstructed form, is a pleasing enough struc- 
ture, as imposingly grand as many in Touraine. 
This palace of kings and queens, which saw 



Pau and Its Chateau 261 

the birth of the Bearnais prince who was to 
reign at Paris, has been remodelled and re- 
stored, but, in spite of this, it still remains the 
key-note of the whole gamut of the charms of 
Pau, and indeed of all Beam. 

The Revolution and Louis Philippe are 
jointly responsible for much of the garish 
crudity of the present arrangement of the Cha- 
teau de Pau. The mere fact that the edifice 
was a prison and a barracks from 1793 to 1808 
accounts for much of the indignity thrust upon 
it, and of the present furnishings — always ex- 
cepting that exceedingly popular tortoise-shell 
cradle — only the wall tapestries may be con- 
sidered truly great. In spite of this, the mem- 
ories of the D'Albrets, of Henri IV, of Gaston, 
and of the ^' Marguerite des Marguerites " still 
hang about its apartments and corridors. 

The Vicomte de Beam who had the idea of. 
transferring his capital from Morlaas to Pau 
was a man of taste. At the borders of his 
newly acquired territory he planted three pieux 
or pau, and this gave the name to the new city, 
which possessed then, as now, one of the most 
admirable scenic situations of France, a ter- 
race a hundred feet or more above the Gave, 
with a mountain background, and a low-lying 
valley before. 



262 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

The English discovered Pan as early as 1785, 
fifty years before Lord Brougham discovered 
Cannes. It was Arthur Young, that indefat- 
igable traveller and agriculturalist, who stood 
as godfather to Pan as a tourist resort, though 
truth to tell he was more interested in industry 
and turnip-growing than in the butterfly doings 
of '^ les elements etrangers " in French water- 
ing places of to-day. 

Throngs of strangers come to Pan to-day, 
and its thirty-five thousand souls make a living 
from the visitors, instead of the ten thousand 
of a century and a quarter ago. 

The people of Pan, its business men at any 
rate, think their city is the chief in rank of the 
Basses-Pyrenees. Figures do not lie, however, 
and the local branch of the Banque de France 
ranks as number sixty-five in volume of busi- 
ness done on a list of a hundred and twenty- 
six, while Bayonne, the real centre of commer- 
cialism south of Bordeaux, is numbered fifteen. 
In population the two cities rank about the 
same. 

The real transformation of Pau into a city 
of pleasure is a work, however, of our own time. 
It was in the mid-nineteenth century that the 
capital of Beam came to be widely known as 
a resort for semi-invalids. Just what degree 



Pau and Its Chateau 263 

of curative excellencies Pau possesses it is not 
for the author of this book to attempt to state, 
but probably it is its freedom from cold north 
and east winds. Otherwise the winter climate 
is wintry to a certain degree, and frequently 
damp, but an appreciable mildness is often to 
be noted here when the Riviera is found in the 
icy grip of the Rhone valley mistral. 

The contrast of the new and the old at Pau 
is greatly to be remarked. There are streets 
which the French describe as neuves et co- 
quettes, and there are others grim, mossy and 
as dead as Pompeii, as far as present-day life 
and surroundings are concerned. 

Formerly the river Hedas, or more properly 
a rivulet, filled the moat of the chateau of the 
kings of Navarre, but now this is lacking. 

The chateau has long been despoiled of its 
furnishings of the time of Henri IV and his 
immediate successors. Nothing but the mere 
walls remain as a souvenir of those royal days. 

The palatial apartments have been in part 
destroyed, and in part restored or remodelled, 
and not until Napoleon III were steps taken 
to keep alive such of the mediaeval aspect as 
still remained. 

Pau, with all its charm and attraction for 
lovers of history and romance, has become 



264 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

sadly over-run of late with diversions wMch. 
comport little enough with the spirit of other 
days. Fox-hunting, golf tournaments and all 
the Anglo-Saxon importations of a colony of 
indulgent visitors from England and America 
are a poor substitute for the jousting tourna- 
ments, the jeux de paume and the pageants of 
the days of the brave king of Navarre. Still 
Pau, its site and its situation, is wonderfully 
fine. 

Pau is the veritable queen of the Pyrenean 
cities and towns, and mingles all the elements, 
of the super-civilization of the twentieth cen- 
tury with the sanctity of memories of feudal 
times. The Palais d'Hiver shares the archi- 
tectural dignity of the city with the chateau, 
but a comparison always redounds to the credit 
of the latter. 

Below the terrace flows the Gave de Pau, and 
separates the verdant faubourg of Jurangon 
from the parent city. The sunlight is brilliant 
here, and the very atmosphere, whether it be 
winter or summer, is, as Jean Eameau puts it, 
like the laughter of the Bearnais, scintillating 
and sympathetic. 

The memories of the past which come from 
the contemplation of the really charming his- 
torical monuments of Pau and its neighbour- 



Pau and Its Chateau 265 

hood are admirable, we all admit, but it is dis- 
concerting all the same to read in the local 
paper, in the cafe, as you are taking your appe- 
tizer before dinner, that *' the day was charac- 
terized with fine weather and the Pau fox- 
hounds met this morning at the Poteau d'Es- 
coubes, some twenty kilometres away to the 
north. A short run uncovered a fox in a 
spinny, and in time he was ' earthed ' near Las- 
caveries! " 

This is not what one comes to the south of 
France to find, and the writer is uncompromis- 
ingly against it, not because it is fox-hunting, 
but because it is so entirely out of place. 

The early history of the city of Pau is en- 
veloped in obscurity. Some sort of a fortified 
residence took shape here under Centulle IV 
in the ninth century, and this noble vicomte 
was the first to be freed of all vassalage to the 
Due d'Aquitaine, and allowed the dignity of 
independent sovereignty. On the occasion 
when the Bishop Amatus of Oloron, the legate 
of the Pope Gregory Yll, came to confer upon 
Centulle the title of comte, in place of that 
of vicomte which he had inherited from his 
fathers, a ceremony took place which was the 
forerunner of the brilliant gatherings of later 
days. Says the chronicler: " The drawbridge 



266 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

of the chateau lowered before the Papal Legate, 
and as quickly as possible he delivered himself 
of the mandemeiit of the Pope, a document 
which meaut much to the future history of 
Beam." 

Pau owes its fame and prosperity to the 
building- of a chateau here by the Bearnais 
princes. To slielter and protect themselves 
from the incursions of the Saracens a fortress- 
chateau was first built high on a plateau over- 
looking the valley of the Ossau. Possession 
was taken of the ground necessary for the site 
by a bargain made with the inhabitants, 
whereby a certain area of paced-off ground 
was to be given, by the original dwellers here, 
in return for the privilege of always being 
present (they and their descendants) at the sit- 
tings of the court. 

Just who built or planned the present Cha- 
teau de Pau appears to be doubtful. Of course 
it is not a thoroughly consistent or homoge- 
neous work ; few median^al chateaux are. That 
master-builder Gaston certainly had something 
to do with its erection, as Froissart recounts 
that when this prince came to visit the Comte 
d'Armagnac at Tarbes he told his host that 
*' il y a faisait cdlficr un moult hel chastel en 
la ville de Pan, an deJiors la ville sur la riviere 



Pau and Its Chateau 267 

du Gave." The groat tower is, as usual, cred- 
ited to Gaston, and it is assuredly after his 
manner. 

Old authors nodded, and sometimes got their 
facts mixed, so one is not surprised to read 
on the authority of another chronicler of the 
time, the Abbe d'Expilly, that " the Chateau 
de Pau was built by Alain d'Albret during the 
regency of Henri II, towards 1518." Favyn, 
in his ** Histoire de Navarre," says, ^' Henri 
II fit hastir a Pau une maison assez helle et 
assez forte selon I'assiette du pays." These 
conflicting statements quite prepare one to 
learn that Michaud in his " Marguerite de Va- 
lois " says that that '' friend of the arts and 
humanity " built the '' Palais de Pau." These 
quotations are given as showing the futility of 
any historian of to-day being able to give un- 
assailable facts, even if he goes to that shelter 
under which so many take refuge — ' ' original 
sources." 

One learns from observation that Pau's cha- 
teau, like most others of mediaeval times, is 
made up of non-contemporaneous parts. It is 
probable that the original edifice served for 
hardly more than a country residence, and that 
another, built by the Vicomtes de Beam, re- 
placed it. This last was grand and magnifi- 



268 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

cent, and with various additions is the same 
foundation that one sees to-day. It was in the 
fifteenth century that the present structure was 
completed, and the gathering and grouping of 
houses without the walls, all closely hugging 
the foot of the cliff upon which stood the cha- 
teau, constituted the beginnings of the present 
city. 

It was in 1464 that Gaston IV, Comte de 
Foix, and usurper of the throne of Navarre, 
established his residence at Pau, and accorded 
his followers, and the inhabitants of the im- 
mediate neighbourhood, such privileges and 
concessions as had never been granted by a 
feudal lord before. A parlement came in time, 
a university, an academy of letters and a mint, 
and Pau became the accredited capital of Beam. 

The development of Pan's chateau is most 
interesting. It was the family residence of the 
reigning house of Beam and Navarre, and the 
same in which Henri IV first saw light. In gen- 
eral outline it is simple and elegant, but a rug- 
gedness and strength is added by the massive 
donjon of Gaston Phoebus, a veritable feudal 
pile, whereas the rest of the establishment is 
built on residential lines, although well forti- 
fied. Other towers also give strength and firm- 
ness to the chateau, and indeed do much to set 



268 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

cent, and with various additions is the same 
foundation that one sees to day. It was in the 
fifteenth century that the present structure was 
completed, and the gathering and grouping of 
houses without the walls, all closely hugging 
the foot of the cliff upon which stood the cha- 
teai3. constituted the beginnings of the present 
city. 

It was in 1464 that Gaston IV, Comte de 
Foix, and usurper of the throne of Navarre, 
established his residence at Pau, and accorded 
his followers, jf|flHA^^^lt^fe©fcs of the im- 
mediate neighl ^ f iiiooa, such pr ivileges and 
concessions as had never been granted by a 
feudal lord before. A parlement came in time, 
a university, an academy of letters and a mint, 
and Pan became the accredited capital of Beam. 

The development of Pan's chateau is most 
interesting. It was the family residence of the 
rei^gning hou??e of Beam and Navarre, and the 
same in which Henri IV fir^t saw light. In gen- 
eral outline it is simple and elegant, but a rug- 
gedness and atrength is added by the massive 
donjon of Gaston Phoebus, a veritable feudal 
pile, whereas the rest of the establishment is 
built on residential lines, although well forti- 
fied. Other towers also give strength and firm- 
ness to the chateau, and indeed do much to set 



Pau and Its Chateau 269 

off the luxurious grace of the details of the 
main building. On the northeast is the Tour 
de Montauset of the fourteenth century, and 
also two other mediaeval towers, one at the 
westerly and the other at the easterly end. 
The Tour Neuve, by which one enters, does not 
belie its name. It is a completely modern work. 
Numerous alterations and repairs have been 
undertaken from time to time, but nothing dras- 
tic in a constructive sense has been attempted, 
and so the cour d'honneur, by which one gains 
access to the various apartments, remains as it 
always was. 

Within, the effect is not so happy. There 
are many admirable fittings and furnishings, 
but they have been put into place and arranged 
often with little regard for contemporary ap- 
propriateness. This is a pity; it shows a lack 
of what may be called a sense of fitness. You 
do not see such blunders made at Langeais on 
the Loire, for instance, where the owner of the 
splendid feudal masterpiece which saw the 
marriage of Anne de Bretagne with Charles 
VIII has caused it to be wholly furnished with 
contemporary pieces and decorations, or excel- 
lent copies of the period. Better good copies 
than bad originals ! 

The chateaux of France, as distinct from for- 



270 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

tified castles merely, are what the French clas- 
sify as " gloires domestiques," and certainly 
when one looks them over, centuries after they 
were built, they unquestionably do outclass our 
ostentatious dwellings of to-day. 

There are some excellent Gobelin and Flem- 
ish tapestries in the Chateau de Pau, but they 
are exposed as if in a museum. Still no study 
of the work of the tapestry weavers would be 
complete without an inspection and considera- 
tion of these examples at Pau. 

The chief '' curiosity " of the Chateau de 
Pau is the tortoise-shell cradle of Henri of 
Beam. It is a curio of value if one likes to 
think it so, but it must have made an uncom- 
fortable sort of a cradle, and the legend con- 
nected with the birth of this prince is surpris- 
ing enough to hold one's interest of itself with- 
out the introduction of this doubtful accessory. 
However, the recorded historic account of the 
birth of Henri IV is so fantastic and quaint 
that even the tortoise-shell cradle may well be 
authentic for all we can prove to the contrary. 

There is a legend to the effect that Henri 
d'Albret, the grandfather of Henri IV, had told 
his daughter to sing immediately an heir was 
born: '' pour ne pas faire un enfant pleureux 
et rechigne." The devoted and faithful Jeanne 



Pau and Its Chateau 271 

chanted as she was bid, and the grandfather, 
taking the child in his arms and holding it aloft 
before the people, cried: " Ma brebis a enfante 
un lion." The child was then immediately 
given a few drops of the wine of JuranQon, 
grown on the hill opposite the chateau, to as- 
sure a temperament robust and vigorous. 

As every characteristic of the infant prince's 
after life comported well with these legendary 
prophecies, perhaps there is more truth in the 
anecdote than is usually found in mediaeval tra- 
ditions. 

Another account has it that the first nourish- 
ment the infant prince took was a '^ goutte " 
(gousse) of garlic. This was certainly strong 
nourishment for an infant! The wine story is 
easier to believe. 

The '* Chanson Bearnais " sung by Queen 
Jeanne on the birth of the infant prince has 
become a classic in the land. As recalled the 
Bearnais patois opened thus : — 

" Nostre dame deou cap deou poun, ajouda me a d'aqueste 
hore." 

In French it will be better understood : — 

" Notre Dame du bout du pont, 
Venez a mon aide en cette heure ! 
Priez le Dieu du ciel 
Qu'il me delivre vite ; 
Qu'il me donne un g&rqon. 



272 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

Tout, jusqu'au haut des monts, vous implore. 
Notre Dame du bout du pont, 
Venez a mon aide en cette heure." 

It was in the little village of Billere, on the 
Lescar road, just outside the gates of Pan, that 
the infant Henri was put en nourrice. The lit- 
tle Prince de Viane, the name given the eldest 
son of the house of Navarre, was later confided 
to a relative, Suzanne de Bourbon, Baronne de 
Miossens, who lived in the mountain chateau 
of Coarraze. The education of the young 
prince was always an object of great solici- 
tude to the mother, Jeanne d'Albret. For in- 
structor he had one La Gaucherie, a man of 
austere manners, but of a vast erudition, pro- 
foundly religious, but doubtful in his devotion 
to the Pope and church of Rome. 

The child Henri continued his precocious ca- 
reer from the day when he first became a hon 
vivant and a connoisseur of wine. By the age 
of eleven he had translated the first five books 
of Caesar's Commentary, and to the very end 
kept his literary tastes. He planned to write 
his memoires to place beside those of his min- 
ister. Sully, and the work was actually begun, 
but his untimely death lost it to the world. 

Another dramatic scene of history identified 
with the Pau chateau of the D'Albrets was 



Pau and Its Chateau 273 

when Henri IV took his first armour. As he 
was out-growing the early years of his youth, 
the queen of Navarre commanded the appear- 
ance at the palace of all the governors of the 
allied provinces. 

The investiture was a romantic and impos- 
ing ceremony. The boy prince was given a 
suit of coat armour, a shield and a sword. A 
day on horseback, clad in full warrior fashion, 
was to be the beginning of his military educa- 
tion. 

All the world made holiday on this occasion ; 
for three days little was done by the retainers 
save to sing praises and shout huzzas for their 
king to be. For the seigneurs and their ladies 
there were comedies and dances, and for all 
the people of Gascogne who chose to come there 
were great fetes, cavalcades and open-air 
amusements on the plain of Pau below the 
castle. 

The culmination of the fete was on the eve- 
ning of the third day. The young prince of 
Navarre, dressed as a simple Bearnais, with 
only a gold fleur-de-lis on his beret, as a mark 
of distinction, came out and mingled with his 
people. As a finishing ceremony the prince 
took again his sword, and, amid the shouts and 
acclamations of the populace, plunged it to the 



274 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

hilt in a tall broc, or jug, of wine, and raised 
it — as if in benediction — first towards the 
people, then towards the army, then towards 
the ladies of the court — ^as a sign of an un- 
written pact that he would ever be devoted to 
them all. 

The sun fell behind the crests of the Pyre- 
nees just as this ceremony was finished, and 
the youth, saluting the smiling king and queen, 
— his father and mother — left with his '' gens 
d'armes pour faire le tour de sa Gascogne." 

The memory of Henri Quatre remains won- 
drous vivid in the minds of all the Bearnais, 
even those of the present day, and peasant and 
bourgeois alike still talk of " notre Henri,'* 
when recounting an anecdote or explaining the 
significance of some historic spot. 

Well, why not! Henri lived in a day when 
men made their mark with a firmer, surer hand, 
than in these days of high politics and social- 
istics. The Bearnais never forget that Henri, 
Prince de Beam — the rough mountaineer, as 
he was called at Paris — was a joyous com- 
patriot, a lover and a poet, and that he knew 
the joys of passion and the sorrows of suffer- 
ing as well as any man of his time. The fol- 
lowing old chanson, sung to-day in many a 
peasant farmhouse of Beam proves this : — 



Pau and Its Chateau 275 

" Le coeur bless^, les yeux en larmes, 
Ce coeur ne songe qu'a vos charmes, 
Vous etes mon unique amour ; 

Pres de vous je soupire, 
Si vous m'aimez a votre tour, 
J'aurai tout ce que je desire . . ." 

Under the reign of Louis XIV the inhabitants 
of Pau would have erected a statue in honour 
of the memory of the greatest of all the Bear- 
nais — of course Henri IV — but the insistent 
Louis would have none of it, and told them to 
erect a statue to the reigning monarch or none 
at all. 

Nothing daunted the Bearnais set to work at 
once and an effigy of Louis XIV rose in place 
of Henri the mountaineer, but on the pedestal 
was graven these words : '^ A ciou qu'ils I'arra- 
hil de nouste grand Enric." " To him who is 
the grandson of our great Henri. ' ' 

One of the great names of Pau is that of Jean 
de Grassion, Mjarechal de France. He was born 
at Pau in 1609. At Eocroi the Grand Conde 
embraced him after the true French fashion, 
and vowed that it was to him that victory was 
due. He was full of wise saws and convictions, 
and proved himself one of France's great war- 
riors. The following epigrams are worthy of 
ranking as high as any ever uttered : — 



276 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

" In war not any obstacle is insurmount- 
able." 

' ' I have in my head and by my side all that 
is necessary to lead to victory." 

*' I have much respect, but little love for the 
fair sex." (He died a celibataire.) ^' My des- 
tiny is to die a soldier." 

" I get not enough out of life to divide with 
any one." 

This last expression was gallant or ungallant, 
selfish or unselfish, according as one is able to 
fathom it. 

At any rate de Gassion was a great soldier 
and served in the Calvinist army of the Due 
de Eohan. The following " mot " describes 
his character : ' ' Will you be able to follow 
us ? " asked de Rohan at the Battle of the Pont 
de Camerety in Gascogne. " What is to hin- 
der? " demanded the future Marechal of 
France, '' you never go too fast for us, except 
in retreat." 

He recruited a company of French for the 
aid of Gustavus Adolphus in his campaign in 
Upper Saxony, and presented himself before 
that monarch on the battle field with the follow- 
ing words : ' ' Sire, I come with my Frenchmen ; 
the mention of your name has induced them 
to leave their homes in the Pyrenees and offer 



Pau and Its Chateau 277 

you their services. ..." At the battle of Leip- 
zig (1631) Gassion and his men charged three 
times and covered themselves with glory. 

The " Histoire de Marechal de Gassion," by 
the Abbe de Pure, and another by his almoner 
Duprat, an " Eloge de Gassion " (appearing 
in the eighteenth century), are most interesting 
reading. De Gassion it would seem was one 
of the chief anecdotal characters of French his- 
tory. 

Another of the shining lights of Pau (though 
he was born at Gan in the suburbs) was Pierre 
de Marca, an antiquarian whose researches on 
the treasures of Beam have made possible the 
writings of hundreds of his followers. He was 
born in Pau a few years before Henri IV, and 
died an Archbishop of Paris in 1689. 

His epitaph is a literary curiosity. 

" Ci-git Monseigneur de Marca, 
Que le Roi sagement marqua 
Pour le Prelate de son Eglise, 
Mais la mort qui le remarqua 
Et qui se plait a la surprise 
Tout aussit6t le demarqua." 



CHAPTER XVIII 

LESCAB, THE SEPULCHRE OF THE BEAKNAIS 

The antique city of Beneharnum is lost in 
modern Lescar, thougli, indeed, Lescar is far 
from modern, for it is unprogressive with re- 
gard to many of those up-to-date innovations 
which city dwellers think necessary to their 
existence. Lescar was the religious capital of 
Beam, and its bishops were, by inheritance, 
presidents of the Parliament and Seigneurs of 
their diocesan city. 

Lescar is by turns gay and sad; it is gay 
enough on a Sunday or a fete day, and sad and 
diffident at all other times, save what anima- 
tion may be found in its market-place. Archi- 
tecture rises to no great height here, and, be- 
yond the picturesque riot of moss-grown roof- 
tops and tottering walls, there is not much 
that is really remarkable of either Gothic or 
Renaissance days. The ancient cathedral, with 
a weird triangular facade, belongs to no school, 
not even a local one, and is unspeakably ugly 
as a whole, though here and there are gems 

278 



Lescar 279 

of architectural decoration which give it a cer- 
tain fantastic distinction. 

Lescar is but a league distant from Pau, hut 
not many of those who winter in that delight- 
ful city ever come here. *' The Normans razed 
it in 856, when it was rebuilt on the side of a 
hill in the midst of a wood. ' ' This was the old 
chronicler's description, and it holds good to- 
day. Usually travellers find the big cities like 
Pau or Tarbes so irresistible that they have 
no eye for the charm of the small town. The 
country-side they like, and the cities, and yet 
the dull, little, sleepy old-world towns whose 
names are never mentioned in the newspapers, 
and often nowhere but on the road maps of 
the automobilist, are possessed of many pleas- 
ing attributes for which one may look in vain 
in more populous places. Lescar has some of 
these, one of them being its Hotel Uglas. 

Lescar is a good brisk hour and a half's stroll 
from Pau, the classic constitutional recom- 
mended by the doctors to the semi-invalids who 
are so frequently met with at Pau, and is a 
humble, dull bourgade even to-day, sleepy, rus- 
tic, and unprogressive, and accordingly a de- 
lightful contrast to its ostentatious neighbour. 
Poor Lescar, its fall has been profound since 
the days when it was the Beneharnum of the 



280 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

Eomans. Its bishopric has been shredded into 
nonentity, and its ancient cathedral disfigured 
by interpolated banalities until one can hardly 
realize to-day that it was once a metropolitan 
church. 

St. Denis, as the old cathedral of Lescar is 
named, was once the royal burial-place of 
Beam, as was its namesake just outside of 
Paris the sepulchre of the kings of France. 
Here the Bearnais royalties who were kings 
and queens of Navarre came to their last long 
slumbers. Side by side lie the Centulles and 
the D'Albrets. 

The cathedral sits upon a terrace formed of 
the ancient ramparts of the old city, and right 
here is the chief attraction and charm of Las- 
carris, " la ville morte." Lascarris, as it was 
known before it became simply Lescar, was 
built up anew after the primitive city had been 
destroyed by the Saracens in 841, 

This rampart terrace has one great architec- 
tural monument, formerly a part of the ancient 
fortress, a simple, severe tower in outline, but 
of most complicated construction, built up of 
bands of brick and stone in a regular building- 
block fashion, a caprice of some local builder. 
Through this tower one gains access to the ca- 
thedral, which shows plainly how the affairs of 



Lescar 281 

church and state, and war and peace, were 
closely bound together in times past. This lit- 
tle brick and stone tower is the only remaining 
fragment of the fourteenth-century fortress- 
chateau known as the Fort de I'Esquirette. 

Within the cathedral were formerly buried 
Jeanne d'Albret, Catherine de Navarre, Mar- 
guerite de Valois, and other Bearnais sover- 
eigns, but no monuments to be seen there to-day 
antedate the seventeenth century, those of the 
Bearnais royalties having been destroyed either 
by the Calvinists or later revolutionists. Cath- 
erine of Beam was buried here in the cathedral 
of Lescar in spite of her wish that she should 
be entombed at Pamplona beside the kings of 
Navarre. 

The ceremony of the funeral of Marguerite 
de Navarre is described in detail in a document 
preserved in the Bibliotheque Nationale at 
Paris. It recounts that among those present 
were the kings of Navarre and France, the 
Duchesse d'Estonteville, the Due de Montpen- 
sier, M. le Prince, the Due de Nevers, the Due 
d'Aumale, the Due d'Etampes, the Marquis du 
MajTie, M. de Rohan and the Due de Vendo- 
mois, with the Vicomte de Lavedan as the mas- 
ter of ceremony. As is still the custom in many 
places in the Pyrenees, there was a great feast- 



282 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

ing on the day of the interment, the chief 
mourners eating apart from the rest. 

Charles de Sainte-Marthe wrote the funeral 
eulogy, in Latin and French, and Ronsard, the 
prince of poets, wrote an ode entitled " Hymne 
Triomphale." Three nieces of Jane Seymour, 
wife of Henry VIII of England, composed four 
distiques, in Latin, Greek, Italian, and French, 
entitled '^ Tombeau de Marguerite de Valois, 
Reine de Navarre." Valentine d'Arsinois gave 
publicity to this work in the following words: 
" Musarum decima, et charitum quarta, inclyta 
regum et soror et conjux Margaris ilia jacet." 

This in French has been phrased thus : 

" Sceur et femme de roys, la reine Marguerite 
Des Muses la dixieme et leur plus cher souci 

Et la quatrieme Charit6 
La reine du savoir git sous ce marbre-ci." 

Throughout the valley of the Gave d'Ossau, 
and from Lescar all the way to Lourdes on the 
Gave de Pau, the chief background peak in 
plain view is always the Pic du Midi d'Ossau. 
This the peasant of the neighbourhood knows 
by no other name than " la montagne." 
'' What mountain? " you ask, but his reply 
is simply " Je ne sais pas — la montagne." It 



Lescar 283 

should not be confounded with the Pic du Midi 
de Bigorre, 

Between Pau and Lescar, lying just north- 
ward of the Gave, is the last vestige of an in- 
cipient desert region called to-day La Lande 
de Pont-Long. It now blossoms with more or 
less of the profusion which one identifies with 
a land of roses, but was formerly only a pas- 
ture ground for the herders of the Val d 'Ossau, 
who, by a certain venturesome spirit, crossed 
the Gave de Pau at some period well anterior 
to the foundation of the city of Pau and thus 
established certain rights. It was these sheep 
and cattle raisers who ceded the site of the new 
city of Pau to the Vicomtes de Beam. 

Henri II de Navarre, grandfather of Henri 
IV, would have fenced off these Ossalois, but 
every time he made a tentative effort to build 
a wall around them they rose up in their might 
and tore it down again. In vain the Beamais 
of the valley tried to preempt the rights of the 
montagnards, and willingly or not they per- 
force were obliged to have them for neighbours. 
This gave saying to the local diction '' En de- 
spicit dens de Pau, lou Pounloung ser sera 
d'Aussau. 

Intrigue, feudal warfare and oppression 
could do nothing towards recovering this pre- 



284 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

empted land, and only a process of law, as late 
as 1837, finally adjudicated the matter, when 
the Ossalois were bound by judgment to give 
certain reciprocal rights in their high valleys 
to any of the lowland population who wanted 
to pasture their flocks in the mountains for a 
change of diet. It is a patent fact that the 
sheep of all the Midi of France thrive best in 
the lowlands in winter and in the mountains in 
summer. It is so in the Pyrenees and it is so 
in the Basses-Alpes, which in summer furnish 
pasturage for the sheep of the Crau and the 
Camargue, even though they have to march 
three hundred or more kilometres to arrive at 
it. 

Closely allied with Lescar is the ancient cap- 
ital of Beam, Morlaas. After the destruction 
of Lescar by the Normans Morlaas became the 
residence of the Vicomtes de Beam. Its his- 
tory is as ancient and almost as important as 
that of its neighbour. The Eomans here had 
a mint and stamped money out of the copper 
they took from the neighbouring hills. The 
Visigoths, the Franks, the Dues de Gascogne 
and the Vicomtes de Beam all held sway here 
for a time, and the last built a pretentious sort 
of an establishment, the first which the town 
had had which could be dignified with the name 



Lescar 285 

of a palace. This palace was called La Four- 
quie and has since given its name to a hill out- 
side the proper limits of the present town, still 
known as Vieille Fourquie. 

Morlaas is a mere nonentity to-day, though 
it was the capital of Beam from the time of 
the destruction of Lescar by the Saracens until 
the thirteenth century, when the vicomtes re- 
moved the seat of the government to Pau. 

The town is practically one long, straight 
grand rue, with only short tributary arteries 
running in and from the sides. The £}glise 
Sainte Foy at Morlaas is a real antiquity, and 
was founded by Oentulle, the fourth vicomte, 
in 1089. 

There are still vestiges of the ancient ram- 
parts of the city to be seen, and the great 
market held every fifteen days, on the Place 
de la Fourquie, is famous throughout Beam. 
Altogether Morlaas should not be omitted from 
any neighbouring itinerary, and the local col- 
our to be found on a market day at Morlaas' 
snug little Hotel des Voyageurs will be a mar- 
vel to those who know only the life of the cities. 
Morlaas is one of the good things one occasion- 
ally stumbles upon off the beaten track; and 
it is not far off either; just a dozen kilometres 
or so northwest of Pau. Morlaas' importance 



286 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

of old is further enhanced when one learns that 
the measure of Morlaas was the basis for the 
measure used in the wine trade of all Gascony, 
and the same is true of the livre morlan, and 
the sou morlan, which were the monetary units 
of G-ascony and a part of Languedoc. 



CHAPTER XIX 

THE GAVE d'oSSAU 

On ascending the Gave d'Ossau, all the -way 
to Laruns and beyond, one is impressed by the 
beauty of the snow-crested peaks before them, 
unless by chance an exceptionally warm spell 
of weather has melted the snow, which is quite 
unlikely. 

You can name every one of the peaks of the 
Pyrenees with the maps and plans of Joanne's 
Guide, but you will glean little specific infor- 
mation from the peasants en route, especially 
the women. 

" Attendez, monsieur, je vais demander a 
mon mari," said a buxom, lively-looking peas- 
ant woman when questioned at Laruns. Her 
" mari " came to the rescue as well as he was 
able. ^' Ma foi, je ne sais pas trop," he re- 
plied, " mais pent etre . . . ; " there was no 
use going any further; all he knew was that 
the mountains were the Pyrenees, and were the 
peaks high or low, to him they were always 
** les Pyrenees " or " la montagne." 

287 



288 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

Not far from Pan, on niounting the Gave 
d'Ossau, is Gan, one of the thirteen ancient 
cities of Beam. In a modest castle flanked by 
a tiny pepper-box tower Pierre de Marca, the 
historian of Beam, first saw the light, some 
years after the birth of Henri IV. 

A little further on, but hemmed in among 
the high mountains between the valley of the 
Ossau and the Pau, is a tiny bourg bearing the 
incongruous name of Bruges. 

It is not a simple coincidence in name, with 
the well-known Belgium port, because the rec- 
ords show that this old feudal hastide was orig- 
inally peopled by exiled Flemings, who gave 
to it the name of one of their most glorious 
cities. The details of this foreign implantation 
are not very precise. The little bourg enjoyed 
some special privileges, in the way of being 
immune from certain taxes, up to the Kevolu- 
tion. There are no architectural monuments 
of splendour to remark at Bruges, and its sole 
industries are the manufacture of espadrilles, 
or rope-soled shoes, and chapelets, the con- 
struction of these latter '' objects of piety " 
being wholly in the hands of the women-folk. 

Like many a little town of the Pyrenees, 
Laruns, in the Val d'Ossau, is a reminder of 
similar towns in the Savoian Alps-Barcelon- 




EspadriUe- makers 



The Gave d'Ossau 289 

nette, for instance. They all have a certain 
grace and beauty, and are yet possessed of a 
hardy character which gives that distinction 
to a mountain town which one lying in the low- 
lands entirely lacks. Here the houses are trim 
and well-kept, even dainty, and the church spire 
and all the dependencies of the simple life of 
the inhabitants speak volumes for their health 
and freedom from the annoyances and cares of 
the big towns. 

Laruns merits all this, and is moreover more 
gay and active than one might at first suppose 
of a little town of scarce fifteen hundred inhab- 
itants. This is because it is a centre for the 
tourist traffic of Eaux-Bonnes and Eaux- 
Chaudes, not greatly higher up in the valley. 

There are many quaint old Gothic houses 
with arched windows and doorways, and occa- 
sionally a curious old buttress, but all is so 
admirably kept and preserved that the whole 
looks like a newly furbished stage-setting. For 
a contrast there are some Renaissance house 
fronts of a later period, with here and there 
a statue-filled niche in the walls, and a lamp 
bracket which would be worth appropriating if 
that were the right thing to do. 

There is a picturesqueness of costume among 
the women-folk of Laruns, too. They wear a 



290 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

sort of white cap or bonnet, covered with a 
black embroidered fichu, and a coloured shawl 
and apron which gives them a holiday air every 
day in the week. When it comes Sunday or 
a fete-day they do the thing in a still more 
startling fashion. The coiffes and costumes of 
France are fast disappearing, but in the Pyre- 
nees, and in Brittany, and in just a few places 
along some parts of the coast line bordering 
upon the Bay of Biscay, they may still be found 
in all their pristine quaintness. 

The Fete Dieu procession (the Thursday 
after Trinity) at Laruns is an exceedingly pic- 
turesque and imposing celebration. Here in 
the pious cortege one sees more frequent ex- 
hibitions of the local costumes of the country 
than at any other time or place. The tiny girls 
and the older unmarried girls have all the pic- 
turesque colouring that brilliant neckerchiefs, 
fichus and foulards can give, with long braided 
tresses like those of Marguerite, except that 
here they are never golden, but always sable. 
The matrons are not far behind, but are more 
sedately clothed. The men have, to a large ex- 
tent, abandoned the ancient costume of their 
forefathers, save the heret and a high-cut pan- 
taloon, which replaces the vest. But for these 
two details one finds among the men a certain 



The Gave d'Ossau 291 

family resemblance to a carpenter or a boiler 
maker of Paris out at Courbevoie for a happy 
Sunday. 

The procession at the Fete Dieu at Laruns 
is very calm and dignified, but once it is dis- 
persed, all thoughts of religion and devoutness 
are gone to the winds. Then commences the 
invariable dance, and they don't wait for night 
to begin. Most likely this is the first Bal d'Me, 
though usually this comes with Easter in 
France. The dance is the passion of the people 
of the Pays d'Ossau, but this occasion is purely 
a town affair, and you will not see a peasant 
or a herder from the countryside among all the 
throng of dancers. Their great day in town 
comes at quite another season of the year, in 
the autumn, in the summer of Saint Martin, 
which in America we know as the Indian sum- 
mer. 

On the highroad, not far from Laruns, is a 
great oak known locally as the *' Arbre de 
I'Ours " because on more than one occasion 
in the past a bear or a whole family of them 
has treed many an unfortunate peasant travel- 
ling by this route. This may have been a dan- 
ger once, but the bears have now all retreated 
further into the mountains. They are not by 
any means impossible to find, and not long since 



292 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

one read in the local journal that three were 
killed, practically on the same spot, not far 
above Laruns, and that a sporting Russian 
prince had killed two within a week. 

In the high valley of the Ossau the bear is 
still the national quadruped, and the arms of 
the district represent a cow struggling with a 
bear and the motto Viva la Tacha, which in 
French means simply Vive la Vache. 

Near Laruns is the little village of Louvie- 
Soubiron which takes its name from an ancient 
seigneurie of the neighbourhood. It has no 
artistic embellishments worthy of remark, but 
on this spot was quarried the stone from which 
were carved the symbolical statues of the great 
cities of France surrounding the Place de la 
Concorde at Paris. 

The ancient capital of Ossau was Bielle, and 
up to the Eevolution the assemblies of the an- 
cient government were held here. It hardly 
looks its part to-day. The population is but 
seven hundred, and it is not even of the rank 
of a market-town. Traditions still persist, how- 
ever, and delegates from all over the Pays 
d 'Ossau meet here at least once a year to dis- 
cuss such common interests as the safeguard- 
ing of forests and pastures. In a small chamber 
attached to the little parish church is preserved 



The Gave d'Ossau 293 

the ancient coffer, or strong box, of the old 
Republic of Ossau. It is still fastened by three 
locks, the keys being in the possession of the 
mayors of Bielle, of Laruns, and of Saint Co- 
lome. 

Ten kilometres from Laruns is Eaux-Bonnes, 
Their virtues have been known for ages. The 
Bearnais who so well played their parts at the 
ill-fated battle of Pavia were transported 
thilher that they might benefit from these 
*' waters of the arquebusade," as the generic 
name is known. A further development came 
under the leadership of a certain Comte de 
Castellane, prefet of the department under the 
great Napoleon. He indeed was the real ex- 
ploiter, applying some of the ideas which had 
been put into practice in the German spas. He 
set to with a will and beautified the little town, 
laid out broad tree-lined avenues, and made a 
veritable little paradise of this rocky gorge. 
The little bourg is therefore to-day what the 
French describe as " amiable/' and nothing 
else describes it better. The town itself is 
dainty and charming enough, but mostly its 
architectural characteristics are of the villa 
order. The church is modern and everybody is 
'' on the make." 

It is not that the population are swindlers, 



294 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

— far from it ; but they have discovered that 
by exploiting tourists and '' malades imagi- 
naires " for three months in the year they can 
make as ample a living as by working at old- 
fashioned occupations for a twelvemonth. A 
sign on one house front tells you that a ' ' Guide- 
Chasseur " lives there, and that he will take 
you on a bear hunt — prix a forfait; which 
means that if you don't get your bear you pay 
nothing to your guide ; but you have given him 
a fine ten-days' excursion in the mountains, at 
your expense for his food and lodging never- 
theless, beside which he has had the spending 
of your money for the camp equipment and sup- 
plies. He really would make a very good thing, 
even if you did not have to pay him a bonus 
for every bear sighted, not shot, mind you, for 
all the guide undertakes to do is to point out 
the bear, if he can. 

Another very business-like sign may be seen 
at Eaux-Bonnes, — that of a transatlantic 
steamship company. They gather traffic, the 
steamship agents, even here in the fastnesses 
of the Pyrenees, and Amerique du Sud espe- 
cially is still depopulating southern France. 

Eaux-Chaudes is another neighbouring ther- 
mal station. As its name implies, it is a source 
of hot water, and was already famous in the 



The Gave d'Ossau 295 

reign of Henri IV. Tlie little community points 
out with pride that the archives record the fact 
that this monarch *' took the waters here with 
much benefit." 

The little Pyrenean village of Gabas lies high 
up the valley under the shelter of the Pic du 
Midi d'Ossau. It is not greatly known to fame ; 
it is what the French call a hamlet with but a 
few chimneys. A late census gave it twenty- 
three inhabitants, but probably the most of 
these have departed in the last year or so to 
become femmes de chambre and gargons de 
cafe in the big towns. 

The place is, however, very ancient, and was 
the outgrowth of a little settlement which sur- 
rounded a chapel built as early as 1121, and a 
sort of resting-house or hospital for pilgrims 
who passed this way in mediaeval times. This 
establishment was known as Santa-Christina, 
and was consecrated to the pilgrims going and 
coming from Saint Jacques de Compostelle. 

Plastered up recently on the wall of the 
mayor's office in the little village was a placard 
addressed to the " Messieurs d'Ossau," by the 
Conseiller d'Arrondissement, This singular 
form of address is a survival of the ancient con- 
stitution of this little village, which, in times 
past, when everything else round about was 



296 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

feudal or monarchial, was sort of demi-repub- 
lican. The " Messieurs d'Ossau " recognized 
no superior save the Prince of Beam, and con- 
sidered him only as a sort of a titular dignitary 
with no powers over them worth speaking of. 

Here in the communes of Laruns and Arudy 
the peasants have certain rights of free pas- 
ture for their flocks and herds, a legacy which 
came originally through the generosity of 
Henri IV, and which no later rule of monarchy 
or republic has ever been able to assail. The 
" Messieurs d'Ossau " also had the ancient 
right of gathering about the same council table 
with the Vicomtes of Beam when any discus- 
sion of the lands included in the territorial lim- 
its of Beam was concerned. 



CHAPTER XX 

TAKBES, BIGORRE AND LUCHON 

There is a clean-cut, commercial-looking air 
to Tarbes, little in keeping with what one imag- 
ines the capital of the Hautes-Pyrenees to be. 
Local colour has mostly succumbed to twen- 
tieth-century innovations in the train of great 
hotels, tourists and clubs. In spite of this, the 
surrounding panorama is superb; the setting 
of Tarbes is delightful ; and at times — but not 
for long at a time — it is really a charming 
town of the Midi. Tarbes possessed a chateau 
of rank long years ago; not of so high a rank 
as that of Pau, for that was royal, but still a 
grand and dignified chateau, worthy of the 
seigneurs who inhabited it. Raymond I for- 
tified the place in the tenth century, and all 
through the following five hundred years life 
here was carried on with a certain courtly 
splendour. To-day the chateau, or what is left 
of it, serves as a prison. 

The unlovely cathedral at Tarbes was once a 
citadel, or at least served as such. It must have 

297 



298 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

been more successful as a warlike accessory 
than as a religious shrine, for it is about the 
most ungracious, unchurchly thing to be seen 
in the entire round of the Pyrenees. 

The chief architectural curiosity of Tarbes 
is the Lycee, on whose portal (dated 1669) one 
reads : ' ' May this building endure until the 
ant has drunk the waters of the ocean, and the 
tortoise made the tour of the globe. ' ' It seems 
a good enough dedication for any building. 

The ever useful Froissart furnishes a refer- 
ence to Tarbes and its inns which is most apro- 
pos. Travellers even in those days, unless they 
were noble courtiers, repaired to an inn as now. 

The Messire Espaing de Lyon, and the 
Maitre Jehan Froissart made many journeys 
together. It was here under the shelter of the 
Pyrenees that the maitre said to his compan- 
ion: 

** Et nous vinmes a Tarbes, et nous fumes 
tout aises a 1 'hostel de I'Etoile. . . . C'est une 
ville trop bien aisee pour sejourner chevaux: 
de bons foins, de bons avoines et de belles 
rivieres." 

Tarbes is something of an approach to this, 
but not altogether. The missing link is the 
Hostel de I'fitoile, and apparently nothing ex- 
ists which takes the place of it. From the four- 



Tarbes, Bigorre and Luchon 299 

teenth century to the twentieth century is a long 
time to wait for hotel improvements, particu- 
larly if they have not yet arrived. 

The great Marche de Tarbes is, and has been 
for ages, one of its chief sights, indeed it is the 
rather commonplace modern city's principal 
picturesque accessory, if one excepts its grandly 
scenic background. Every fifteen days through- 
out the year the market draws throngs of buy- 
ers and sellers from the whole region of the 
western Pyrenees. 

In the very midst of the most populous and 
wealthy valleys and plains of the Pyrenees, one 
sees here the complete gamut of picturesque 
peoples and costumes in which the country 
abounds. Here are the Bearnais, agile and gay, 
and possessed of the very spirit associated 
with Henri IV. They seat themselves among 
their wares, composed of woollen stuffs and 
threads, pickled meats, truffles, potatoes, cheeses 
of all sorts, agricultural implements — mostly 
primitive, but with here and there a gaudy 
South Bend or Milwaukee plough — porcelain, 
coppers, cattle, goats, sheep and donkeys, and 
a greater variety of things than one's imag- 
ination can suggest. It is almost the liveliest 
and most populous market to be seen in France 
to-day. The gaudy umbrellas and tents cover 



300 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

the square like great mushrooms. There are 
much picturesqueness and colour, and lively 
comings and goings too. This is ever a contra- 
diction to the reproach of laziness usually ap- 
plied to the care-free folk of the Midi. 

In olden times the market of Tarbes was the 
resort of many Spanish merchants, and they 
still may be distinguished as donkey-dealers 
and mule traders, but the chief occupants of 
the stalls and little squares of ground are the 
dwellers of the countryside, who think nothing 
of coming in and out a matter of four or five 
leagues to trade a side of bacon — which they 
call simply sale — for a sheep or a goat, or a 
sheep or a goat for a nickel clock, made in 
Connecticut. It's as hard for the peasant to 
draw the line between necessities and superflu- 
ities as it is for the rest of us, and he is often 
apt to put caprice before need. 

Neighbouring close upon Tarbes is the an- 
cient feudal bourg of Ossun, which most of the 
fox-hunters of Pan, or the pilgrims of Lourdes, 
know not even by name. It's only the travel- 
ler by road — the omnipresent automobilist of 
to-day — who really stands a chance of ' ' dis- 
covering " anything. The art of travel degen- 
erated sadly with the advent of the railway 
and the ** personally conducted pilgrimage," 



Tarbes, Bigorre and Luchon 301 

but the automobile is bringing it all back again. 
The bicycle stood a chance of participating in 
the same honour at one time, but folk weren't 
really willing to take the trouble of becoming 
a vagabond on wheels. 

Ossun was the site of a Roman camp before 
it became a feudal stronghold, and with the 
coming of the chateau and its seigneurs, in the 
fifteenth century, it came to a prominence and 
distinction which made of it nearly a metrop- 
olis. To-day it is a dull little town of less than 
two thousand souls, but with a most excellent 
hotel, the Galbar, which is far and away better 
(to some of us) than the popular hotels of Pau, 
Tarbes or Luchon. 

The chateau of Ossun, or so much of it as 
remains, was practically a fortress. What it 
lacks in luxury it makes up for in its intimation 
of strength and power, and from this it is not 
difficult to estimate its feudal importance. 

The Roman camp, whose outlines are readily 
defined, was built, so history tells, by one Cras- 
sus, a lieutenant of Caesar. It was an extensive 
and magnificent work, a long, sunken, oblong 
pit with four entrances passing through the 
sloping dirt walls. Four or five thousand men, 
practically a Roman legion, could be quartered 
within. 



302 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

It was from the Chateau d'Odos, near Tarbes, 
in the month of December, 1549, that the Queen 
of Navarre observed the comet which was said 
to have made its appearance because of the 
death of Pope Paul III. Says Brantome: 
' ' She jumped from her bed in fright at observ- 
ing this celestial phenomenon, and presumably 
lingered too long in the chill night, for she 
caught a congestion which brought about her 
death eight days later, 21st December, 1549, in 
the fifty-eighth year of her age." According 
to Hilarion de Coste her remains were trans- 
ported to Pau, and interred in the " principal 
eglise/' but others, to the contrary, say that 
she was buried in the great burial vault at Les- 
car. This is more likely, for an authentic doc- 
ument in the Bibliotheque Nationale describes 
minutely the details of the ceremony of burial 
" dans r antique cathedrale de Lescar." 

On the Landes des Maures, near by, was cele- 
brated a bloody battle in the eighth century 
between the Saracens and the inhabitants of 
the country. Gruesome finds of '' skulls of ex- 
traordinary thickness " have frequently been 
made on this battlefield. Just what this descrip- 
tion seems to augur the writer does not know; 
perhaps some ethnologist who reads these lines 







A Shepherd of Bigorre 



Tarbes, Bigorre and Luchon 303 

will. At any rate the combatants must have 
died hard. 

Following up the valley of the Adour one 
comes to the Bagneres de Bigorre in a matter 
of twenty-five kilometres or so. Bagneres de 
Bigorre is a hodge-podge of a name, but it is 
the " Bath " of France, as an Englishman of 
a centur}^ ago called it. There are other resorts 
more popular and fashionable and more wick- 
edly immoral, such as Vichy, Aix les Bains and 
even Luchon, but still Bigorre remains the first 
choice. From the times of the Romans, throngs 
have been coming to this charming little spot 
of the Pyrenees where the mineral waters bub- 
ble up out of the rock, bringing health and 
strength to those ill in mind and body. Pleas- 
ure seekers are here, too, but primarily it is 
the baths which attract. 

There are practically no monuments of by- 
gone days here, but fragmentary relics of one 
sort or another tell the story of the waters 
from Roman times to the present with scarcely 
a break: 

Arreau, seven leagues from Bigorre, towards 
the heart of the Pyrenees, through the Val 
d 'Arreau, certainly one of the most pictur- 
esquely unspoiled places in all the Pyrenees, 
is a relic of mediaevalism such as will hardly 



304 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

be found elsewhere in the whole chain of moun- 
tains from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean. 
Its feudal history was fairly important, but its 
monuments of the period, save its churches and 
its market house or " Halle," have practically 
disappeared. Whatever defences there may 
have been, have been built into the town's fine 
stone houses and bridges, but the Eoman tower 
of St. Exupere, and the primitive church now 
covered by Notre Dame show its architectural 
importance in the past. 

By reason of being one of the gateways 
through the Pyrenees into Spain (by the valley 
of the Arreau and the partes, so called, of Plan 
and Vielsa) Arreau enjoys a Franco-Espagnol 
manner of living which is quaint beyond words. 
It is the nearest thing to Andorra itself to be 
found on French soil. 

Luchon is situated in a nook of the Larboust 
surrounded with a rural beauty only lent by 
a river valley and a mountain backgrouiid. 
The range to the north is bare and grim, but 
to the southward is thickly wooded, with little 
eagles '-nest villages perched here and there on 
its flanks and peaks, in a manner which leads 
one to believe that this part of the Pyrenees is 
as thickly peopled as Switzerland, where peas- 
ants fall out of their terrace gardens only to 



Tarbes, Bigorre and Luchon 305 

tumble into those of a neighbour living lower 
down the mountain-side. 

The surroundings of Luchon are indeed sub- 
lime, from every point of view, and one's imag- 
ination needs no urging to appreciate the sen- 
timent which is supposed to endow a " nature- 
poet." Yes, Luchon is beautiful, but it is over- 
run with fashionables from all over the world, 
and is as gay as Biarritz or Nice. " La grande 
vie mondaine " is the key-note of it all, and if 
one could find out just when was the off-season 
it would be delightful. Of late it has been 
crowded throughout the year, though the height 
of fashion comes in the spring. Outside of its 
sulphur springs the great world of fashion 
comes here to dine and wine their friends and 
play bridge. 

Luchon has a history though. As a bathing 
or a drinking place it was known to the Romans 
as Onesiorum, Thermce and was mentioned by 
Strabo as being famous in those days. 

There were many pagan altars and temples 
here erected to the god Ilixion, which by evo- 
lution into Luchon came to be the name by 
which the place has latterly been known. 

In 1036, by marriage. Luchon was trans- 
ferred from the house of Comminges to that of 
Aragon, but later was returned to the Comtes 



306 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

de Comminges and finally united with France 
in 1458 under Charles VII, retaining, however, 
numerous ancient privileges which endured 
until the end of the seventeenth century. 

This was the early history of Luchon. Its 
later history began when, in 1754, the local 
waters were specially analyzed and a boom 
given to a project to make of the place a great 
spa. 

The city itself is the proprietor of all the 
springs and its administrative sagacity has 
been such that fifty thousand visitors are at- 
tracted here within the year. 



CHAPTER XXI 

BY THE BLUE GAVE DE PAU 

The Gave de Pan, a swiftly-flowing stream 
which comes down from its icy cradle in the 
Cirque de Gavarnie and joins with the Adour 
near Bayonne's port, winds its way through a 
gentle, smiling valley filled with gracious vis- 
tas, historic sites and grand mountain back- 
grounds. 

Next to the aesthetic aspects of the Gave de 
Pau are its washhouses. The writer in years 
of French travel does not remember to have 
seen a stream possessed of so many. 

One sees similar arrangements for washing 
clothes all over France, but here they are ex- 
ceedingly picturesque in their disposition, and 
the workers therein are not of the Zola-Ama- 
zon type, nor of the withered beldam class. 
How much better they wash than others of 
their fraternity elsewhere is not to be re- 
marked. 

There are municipal washhouses in some of 
the larger towns of France, great, ugly, brick, 

307 



308 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

cement and iron structures, but as the actual 
washing is done after the same manner as when 
carried on by the banks of a rushing river or 
a purling brook there is not much to be said 
in their favour that cannot as well be applied 
to the washhouses of Pau, Oloron or Orthez in 
Navarre, and artist folk will prefer the latter. 

Coarraze, twenty kilometres above Pau, on 
the banks of the Gave, is a populous centre 
where the hum of industry, induced by the 
weavers who make the toile du Beam, is the 
prevailing note. Toile du Beam and chapelets 
are the chief output of this little bourg, and 
many francs are in circulation here each Sat- 
urday night that would probably be wanting 
except for these indefatigable workers who had 
rather bend over greasy machines at some- 
thing more than a living wage, than dig a mere 
existence out of the ground. 

The little bourg is dull and gray in colour, 
only its surroundings being brilliant. Its situ- 
ation is most fortunate. Opposite is a great 
tree-covered plateau, a veritable terrace, on 
which is a modern chateau replacing another 
which has disappeared — " comme un chevreau 
en liberie/' says the native. 

It was in this old Chateau de Coarraze that 
the youthful Henri IV was brought up by an 




Chateau de C oar raze 



By the Blue Gave de Pau 309 

L 

aunt, en paysan, as the simple life was then 
called. Perhaps it was this early training 
that gave him his later ruggedness and rude 
health. 

The chateau has been called royal, and its 
construction has been attributed to Henri IV, 
but this is manifestly not so. Only ruined walls 
and ramparts, and the accredited facts of his- 
tory, remain to-day to connect Henri IV with 
the spot. 

The chateau virtually disappeared in a revo- 
lutionary fury, and only the outline of its 
former walls remains here and there. A more 
modern structure, greatly resembling the cha- 
teau at Pau, practically marks the site of the 
former establishment endowed with the mem- 
ory of Henri IV 's boyhood. 

Froissart recounts a pleasant history of the 
Chateau de Coarraze and its seigneur. A cer- 
tain Raymond of Beam had acquired a con- 
siderable heritage, which was disputed by a 
Catalan, who demanded a division. Raymond 
refused, but the Catalan, to intimidate his ad- 
versary, threatened to have him excommuni- 
cated by the Pope. Threats were of no avail, 
and Raymond held to his legacy as most heirs 
do under similar claims. One night some one 
knocked loudly at Raymond's door. 



310 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

'' Who is there? " he cried in a trembling 
voice. 

'* I am Orthon, and I come on behalf of the 
Catalan. ' ' 

After a parley he left, nothing accomplished, 
but returned night after night in some strange 
form of man or beast or wraith or spook or 
masquerader and so annoyed Eaymond that he 
was driven into madness, the Catalan finally 
coming to his own. 

At Nay, Gaston Phoebus is said to have built 
a sort of modest country house which in later 
centuries became known simply as La Maison 
Carree. Perhaps Gaston Phoebus built it, and 
perhaps he did not, for its architecture is of 
a very late Renaissance. At any rate it has a 
charming triple-galleried house-front, quite in 
keeping with the spirit of medisevalism which 
one associates with a builder who has ' ' ideas ' ' 
and is not afraid of carrying them out, and this 
was Gaston's reputation. The house is on rec- 
ord as having one day been occupied by the 
queen of Navarre, Jeanne d'Albret. 

Just beyond Coarraze is Betharrem whose 
* ' Calvary ' ' and church are celebrated through- 
out the Midi. From the fifteenth of August to 
the eighth of September it is a famous place 
of pilgrimage for the faithful of Beam and 



By the Blue Gave de Pau 311 

Bigorre, a veritable New Jerusalem. Its foun- 
dation goes back to antiquity, but its origin is 
not unknown, if legend plays any part in truth- 
ful description. 

One day, too far back to give a date, a young 
and pious maiden fell precipitately into the 
Gave. She could not swim and was sinking in 
the waters, when she called for the protection 
of the Virgin Mary. At that moment a tree 
trunk, leaning out over the river, gave way and 
fell into the waters; the maiden was able to 
grasp it and keep afloat, and within a short 
space was drifted ashore. There is nothing 
very unplausible about this, nothing at all 
miraculous; and so it may well be accepted as 
a legend based on truth. 

A modest chapel was built near at hand, by 
some pious folk, to commemorate the event, or 
perhaps it was built — as has been claimed — 
by Gaston IV himself, on his return from the 
Crusades in the middle of the twelfth century. 
The latter supposition holds good from the fact 
that the place bears the name of the city by the 
Jordan. 

Montgomery burned the chapel during the 
religious wars, but again in the seventeenth 
century, Hubert Charpentier, licencie of the 
Sorbonne, came here and declared that the con- 



312 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

figuration of the mountain resembled that 
where took place the crucifixion, and accordingly 
erected a Calvary dedicated to " Our Lady," 
'' in order," as he said, " to revivify the faith 
which Calvinism had nearly extinguished." 

Saint-Pe-de-Bigorre, lying midway between 
Pan and Lourdes, is an ideally situated, typical 
small town of France. It is not a resort in any 
sense of the word, but might well be, for it is 
as delightful as any Pyrenean " station " yet 
'' boomed " as a cure for the ills of folk with 
imaginations. 

It is a genume garden-city. Its houses, 
strung out along the banks of the Gave, are 
wall-surrounded and tree-shaded, nearly every 
one of them. But one hotel extends hospitality 
at Saint Pe to-day, but soon there will be a 
dozen, no doubt, and then Saint Pe will be 
known as a centre where one may find " all the 
attractions of the most celebrated watering- 
places." 

To-day Saint Pe depends upon its ravishing 
site and its historic past for its reason for be- 
ing. It derives its name from the old Abbey 
of Saint-Pe-de-Greneres (Sanctus Petrus de 
Generoso), founded here in the eleventh cen- 
tury, by Sanchez-Guillaume, Due de Gascogne, 
in commemoration of a victory. This monas- 



By the Blue Gave de Pau 313 

tery, with its abbatial church, was razed during 
the religious wars by the alien Montgomery 
who outdid in these parts even his hitherto un- 
enviable cruelties. The church was built up 
anew, from such of its stones as were left, into 
the present edifice which serves the parish, but 
nothing more than the tower and the apse are 
of the original structure. 

To Lourdes is but a dozen kilometres by road ^N'» ^ lO • 
or rail from Saint Pe. In either case one fol- 
lows along the banks of the Gave with delight- 
ful vistas of hill and dale at every turn, and 
always that blue-purple curtain of mountains 
for a background. 

Lourdes is perhaps the most celebrated, if 
not the most efficacious, pilgrim-shrine in all 
the world. It's a thing to see, if only to remark 
the contrasting French types among the pil- 
grims that one meets there — the Breton from 
Pont Aven or Quimperle, the Norman from the 
Pays de Caux, the Parisian, the Alsagien, the 
NiQois and the Tourangeau. All are here, in 
all stages of health and sickness, vigorous and 
crippled. The shrine of '' Our Lady of 
Lourdes " is all things to all men. Lourdes 
is a beastly, unclean, and uncomfortable place 
in which to linger, in spite of its magnificent 



314 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

situation, and its great and small hotels with 
all manner of twentieth-century conveniences. 

It's a plague-spot on fair France, looking at 
it from one point of view ; and a living super- 
stition of Christendom from another. The 
medical men of France want to close it up; 
the churchmen and hotel keepers want to keep 
it open. Arguments are puerile, so there the 
matter stands ; and neither side has gained an 
appreciable advantage over the other as yet. 

Lourdes was one day the capital of the an- 
cient seigneurie, Lavedan-en-Bigorre, and at 
that time bore the name of Mirambel, which in 
the patois of the region signified beautiful view. 
Originally it was but a tiny village seated at 
the foot of a rock, and crowned by the same 
chateau which exists to-day, and which in its 
evolution has come down from a castellum- 
romain, a Carlovingian bastille, a Capetian and 
English prison of state, a hospital for the mili- 
tary, a barracks, to finally being a musee. 

Of the chateau of the feudal epoch nothing 
remains save two covered ways, the donjon, a 
sixteenth-century gate and a drawbridge, this 
latter probably restored out of all semblance to 
its former outlines. One of these covered ways 
gave access to the upper stages with so ample 
a sweep that it became practically a horse stair- 



314 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

situation, and its great and small hotels with 
all manner of twentieth-century conveniences. 

It's a plague-spot on fair France, looking at 
it from one point of view; and a living super- 
stition of Christendom from another. The 
medical men of France want to close it up; 
the churchmen and hotel keepers want to keep 
it open. Arguments are puerile, so there the 
matter stands ; and neither side has gained an 
appreciable advantage over the other as yet. 

Lourdes was one day the capital of the an- 
cient seigneurie, Lavedan-en-Bigorre, and at 
that fe,^^^% TO^=i5tfs^i^a^bel, which in 
the jjllfe'^g=e# [111! ivglo fpgfgffified beautiful view. 
Originally it was but a tiny village seated at 
the foot of a rock, and crowned by the same 
chateau which exists to-day, and which in its 
evolution has come down from a castelhim- 
ron>: ?rlovingian bastille, a Capetian and 

Engiisii piisoLi of state, a hoBpital for the mili- 
tary, a barracks, to finally being a musee. 

Of the chateau of the feudal epoch nothing 
remains save two covered ways, the donjon, a 
sixteenth-century gate and a drawbridge, this 
latter probably restored out of all semblance to 
its former outlines. One of these covered ways 
gave access to the upper stages with so ample 
a sweep that it became practically a horse stair- 



By the Blue Gave de Pau 315 

way upon which cavaliers and lords and ladies 
reined their chargers. 

The donjon is manifestly a near relation to 
that of Gaston Phoebus at Foix, though that 
prince had no connection with the chateau. 
Transformation has changed all but its out- 
lines, its fosse has become a mere sub-cellar, 
and its windows have lost their original pro- 
portions. 

The Chateau de Lourdes was undoubtedly a 
good defence in its day in spite of its present 
attenuated appearance. In 1373 it resisted the 
troops of Charles V, commanded by the Due 
d'Anjou. Under the ancient French monarchy 
its career was most momentous, though in- 
deed merely as a prison of state, or a house of 
detention for political suspects. Many were 
the " lettres de cachet " that brought an un- 
willing prisoner to be caged here in the shadow 
of the Pyrenees, as if imbedded in the granite 
of the mountains themselves. 

The rock which supports the chateau rises a 
hundred metres or so above the Gave. A great 
square mass — the donjon — forms the prin- 
cipal attribute, and was formerly the house of 
the governor. This donjon with a chapel and 
a barracks has practically made up the en- 
semble in later years. 



316 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

Here, on one of the counterforts of the Pyre- 
nees, just beyond the grim old chateau, and 
directly before the celebrated Pic du Ger, now 
desecrated by a cog-railway, where the seven 
plains of Lavedan blend into the first slopes 
of the mountains, were laid the first stones of 
the Basilique de Lourdes in 1857. 

Previously the site was nothing more than 
a moss-grown grotto where trickled a fountain 
that, for ages, had been the hope of the incur- 
ably ill, who thought if they bathed and drank 
and prayed that miracles would come to them 
and they would be made whole again. 

The fact that the primitive, devout signifi- 
cance of this sentiment has degenerated into 
the mere pleasure seeking of a mixed rabble 
does not affect in the least the simple faith of 
other days. The devout and prayerful still 
come to bathe and pray, but they are lost in 
the throng of indiscriminately " conducted " 
and '' non-conducted " tourists who make of 
the shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes a mere 
guide-book sight to be checked off the list with 
others, such as the Bridge of Sighs, the Pyra- 
mids of Gizeh, the Tour Eiffel, or Hampton 
Court, — places which once seen will never 
again be visited. 

To-day only the smaller part of the visitors. 



By the Blue Gave de Pau 317 

among even the French themselves, excepting 
the truly devout, who are mostly Bretons — 
will reply to the question as to whether they 
believe in Lourdes: " Oui, comme un article de 
foi." 

No further homily shall be made, save to say 
that the general aspect of the site is one of the 
most picturesque and enchanting of any in the 
Pyrenees — when one forgets, or eliminates, 
the signs advertising proprietary condiments 
and breakfast foods. 

It doesn't matter in the least whether one 
Frenchman says : '' C'est ma Foi; " or another 
'' C'est un scandale; " the landscape is glori- 
ously beautiful. Of the Grotto itself one can 
only remark that its present-day garnishings 
are blatant, garish and offensive. The great, 
slim basilica rises on its monticule as was 
planned. It has been amply endowed and ex- 
travagantly built. Before it is a perron, or 
more properly a scala-sancta, and the whole is 
so theatrically disposed, with a great square 
before it, that one can quite believe it all a 
stage-setting and nothing more. 

As a place of pilgrimage, Lourdes is perhaps 
the most popular in all the world, certainly 
it comes close after Jerusalem and Rome. 



318 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

Alphonse XIII, the present ruler of Spain, 
made his devotions here in August, 1905. 

Argeles is practically a resort, and has the 
disposition of a Normandy village ; that is, its 
houses are set about with trees and growing 
verdure of all sorts. For this reason it is a 
delightful garden city of the first rank. 

Argeles' chief attraction is its site; there are 
no monuments worth mentioning, and these are 
practically ruins. Argeles is a watering-place 
pure and simple, with great hotels and many 
of them, and prices accordingly. 

Above Argeles the Gave divides, that portion 
to the left taking the name of Gave de Cau- 
terets, while that to the right still retains the 
name of Gave de Pau. 

Cauterets has, in late years, become a great 
resort, due entirely to its waters and the at- 
tendant attractions which have grouped them- 
selves around its etahlissement. The beneficial 
effect of the drinking or bathing in medicinal 
waters might be supposed to be somewhat neg- 
atived by bridge and baccarat, poker and '' pe- 
tit s chevaux " but these distractions — and 
some others — seem to be the usual accompani- 
ments of a French or German spa. 

'^ C'est le premier jour de septemhre que les 
bains des Pyrenees commencent a avoir de la 




Cauterets 



By the Blue Gave de Pau 319 

vertu." Thus begins the prologue to Margue- 
rite de Navarre's " Heptameron." The " sea- 
son " to-day is not so late, but the queen of 
Navarre wrote of her own experiences and 
times, and it is to be presumed she wrote truly. 

A half a century ago Cauterets was a dirty, 
shabby village, nearly unknown, but the ex- 
ploiter of resorts got hold of it, and with a few 
medical endorsements forthwith made it the 
vogue until now it is as trim and well-laid-out 
a little town as one will find. 

The town is a gem of daintiness, in strong 
contrast to the surrounding melancholy rocks 
and forests of the mountainside. Peaks, ap- 
proximating ten thousand feet in height, rise 
on all sides, and dominate the more gentle 
slopes and valleys, but still the general effect 
is one of a savage wildness, with which the little 
white houses of the town, the electric lights 
and the innumerable hotels — a round score of 
them — comport little. Certainly the beneficial 
effects accruing to semi-invalids here might be 
supposed to be great — if they would but leave 
*' the game " alone. 

A simple mule path leads to the Col de Riou 
back of Cauterets, though it is more frequented 
by tourists on foot than by beasts of burden. 

Here on the Col itself, in plain view of the 



320 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

Pic du Midi and its sister peaks, the Touring 
Club has erected one of those admirable guide- 
book accessories, a "' table d' orientation." 

On its marbled circumference are traced 
nearly three hundred topographical features 
of the surrounding landscape, and a study of 
this well-thought-out affair is most interesting 
to any traveller with a thought above a table 
d'hote. Throughout the region of the Pyrenees 
these circular '^ tables d' orientation," with the 
marked outlines of all the surrounding land- 
scape, are to be found on many vantage 
grounds. The principal ones are : — • 

On the Ramparts of the Chateau de Pau. 

The Col d'Aspin. 

The Col de Riou. 

Platform of the Tour Massey at Tarbes. 

Platform de Mouguerre. 

Summit of the Pic du Midi. 

Summit of the Cabaliros. 

Summit of the Canigou. 

Over the Col de Riou and down into the Gave 
de Pau again, and one comes to Luz. Luz is 
curiously and delightfully situated in a triangu- 
lar basin formed by the water-courses of the 
Gave de Pau and the Gave de Bareges. Prac- 
tically Luz is a ville ancienne and a ville mo- 
derne, the older portion being by far the most 



By the Blue Gave de Pau 321 

interesting, though there is no squalor or un- 
usual picturesqueness. Civic improvements 
have straightened out crooked streets and razed 
tottering house fronts and thus spoiled the pic- 
ture of mediaevalism such as artists — and most 
others — love. 

A ruined fortress rises on a neighbouring 
hill-top which gives a note of feudal times, but 
the general aspect of Luz, and its neighbouring 
pretty suburb of St. Sauveur, each of them 
possessed of thermal establishments, are re- 
sorts pure and simple, which, indeed, both 
these places were bound to become, being on the 
direct route between Pau and Tarbes and Ga- 
varnie, and neighbours of Cauterets and Ba- 
reges. 

Bareges lies just eastward of Luz on a good 
carriage road. Like Bagneres-de-Bigorre, it 
is an oddly named town which depends chiefly 
upon the fact that it is a celebrated thermal 
station for its fame. It sits thirteen hundred 
metres above the sea, and while bright and 
smiling and gracious in summer, in winter it 
is as stern-visaged as a harpy, and about as 
unrelenting towards one's comfort. Only this 
last winter the mountain winds and snows 
caved in Bareges' Casino and a score of houses, 
killing several persons. There is no such a 



322 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

storm-centre in the Pyrenees. Bareges has got 
a record no one will envy, though the efficacy 
of its waters makes them worthy rivals of those 
of Bigorre and Cauterets. 

The fame of Bareges' waters goes back to 
the days of the young Due du Maine, who came 
here with Madame de Maintenon, in 1667, on 
the orders of the doctor of the king. In 1760 
a military hospital was founded here to receive 
the wounded of the Seven Years War. 

Bareges is one of the best centres for moun- 
tain excursions in the Pyrenees. The town it- 
self is hideous, but the surroundings are mag- 
nificent. 

Above Saint Sauveur, Luz and Cauterets, in 
the valley of the Gaube, rises the majestic 
Vignemale, whose extreme point, the Pic 
Longue, reaches a height of three thousand, 
two hundred and ninety-eight metres, which is 
the greatest height of the French Pyrenees. 
In the year 1808, on the occasion of the coming 
of the Queen of Holland, spouse of Louis Bona- 
parte, to the Bains de Saint Sauveur, an un- 
known muse of poesy sang the praise of this 
great mountain as follows : — 

" Roi des Monts: Despote intraitable. 
Toi qui domine dans les airs, 
Toi dont le trone inabordable 



By the Blue Gave de Pau 323 

Appelle et fixe les Eclairs! 

Fier Vignemale, en vain ta cime 

S'entoure d'un affreux abime 

De niege et de debris pierreux ; 

Une nouvelle B6r6nice 

Ose, a c6te du precipice, 

Gravir sur ton front sourcilleux I " 

Each of the thermal stations in these parts 
possesses its own special peak of the Pyrenees. 
Luchon has the Nethou; Bigorre the Pic du 
Midi de Bagneres ; Eaux-Bonnes the Balaitous ; 
Eaux-Chaudes the Pic du Midi d'Ossau; Ver- 
net the Canigou and Saint Sauveur and Cau- 
terets the Vignemale. 

The Vignemale, composed of four peaks, each 
of them overreaching three thousand, two hun- 
dred metres, encloses a veritable river of ice. 
Its profound crevasses and its Mer de Glace re- 
mind one of the Alps more than do the acces- 
sories of any other peak of the Pyrenees. 

The ascension of the Vignemale, from Cau- 
terets or Luz, is the classic mountain climb of 
the Pyrenees. No peak is more easy of access, 
and none gives so complete an idea of the ample 
ranges of the Pyrenees, from east to west, or 
north to south. 



CHAPTEE XXII 

OLOKON AND THE VAL d'aSPE 

Olorof, at the confluence of the Gave d'Os- 
sau and the Gave d'Aspe, has existed since 
Eoman times, when it was known as Iluro, 
finally changing to Oloro and Olero. It was 
sacked by the Saracens in 732, and later en- 
tirely ruined by the Normans. Centulle, Vi- 
comte de Beam, reestablished the city, and 
for a time made it his residence. 

The roads and lanes and paths of the neigh- 
bourhood of Oloron offer some of the most 
charming promenades of the region, but one 
must go on foot or on donkey-back (the latter 
at a cost of five francs a day) to discover all 
their beauties. The highroads of the Pyrenees 
are a speedy and a short means of communica- 
tion between two points, but the delicate charm 
of the region is only discovered by following 
the by-roads, quite away from the beaten track. 

Oloron will some day be an artists' resort, 
but it hasn't been exploited as such yet. It 
sits delightfully on the banks of the two Gayes, 

324 



Oloron and the Val d'Aspe 325 

and has all the picturesqueness that old tum- 
ble-down Gothic and Renaissance houses and 
bridges can suggest, the whole surrounded with 
a verdure and a rocky setting which is " all 
things to all (painter) men." 

In reality Oloron is a triple city, each quite 
distinct from one another: Sainte-Marie, the 
episcopal city, with the cathedral and the bish- 
op's palace; Sainte-Croix, the old feudal bourg; 
and the Quartier Neuve, the quarter of the rail- 
way station, the warehouses and all the smug 
commercialism which has spoiled many a fair 
landscape elsewhere. 

The feudal Sainte-Croix has character; the 
episcopal Sainte-Marie dignity. In Sainte- 
Croix the houses rise up from the surface of 
the Gave in the most entrancing, damp pictur- 
esqueness imaginable as the waters flow swiftly 
down towards Orthez. Back from the river, the 
houses are mounted on tortuous hillsides, with 
narrow, silent streets, as if they and their in- 
habitants all lived in the past. On the very 
crest of the hill is the iSglise Sainte-Croix, 
founded in the ninth century by one of the 
Vicomtes de Beam, a monument every whit as 
interesting as the great cathedral lower down. 

The diocese of Saint-Marie d 'Oloron was the 
least wealthy of any of mediaeval France. Its 



326 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

government allowance was but thirteen thou- 
sand francs, and this sum had to be divided 
with the Bishop of Lescar. On the other hand, 
the city of Oloron itself was important and 
wealthy in its own right. 

In the Faubourg of Sainte-Croix one remarks 
as real a mediaevalism as exists anywhere in 
France to-day. Its streets are narrow and 
silent, and therein are found many examples 
of domestic habitations dating back to Roman 
times. These are very rare to-day, even in 
southern Gaul, where the hand of progress is 
supposed to be weak. Interspersed with these 
Romanesque houses are admirable works of the 
Gothic and Renaissance periods. There is very 
little that is modern. 

Of the old city walls but little evidence re- 
mains. A kind of rampart is seen here and 
there built into other structures, and one, at 
least, of the watch-towers is left, of the dozen 
or more that once existed. Sainte-Croix still 
has, however, an archaic aspect which bids fair 
not to change within the lives of the present 
generation. 

The chief industries of Oloron are the mak- 
ing of espadrilles, and the weaving of '* toile 
du Beam, ' ' a species of linen with which house- 
wives all over these parts stock their linen clos- 



Oloron and the Val d'Aspe 327 

ets once in a lifetime, and which lasts till they 
die, or perhaps longer, and is handed down to 
their daughters and granddaughters. 

Another echo of Protestantism in Beam still 
reverberates at Oloron. A one-time Bishop of 
Oloron, a protege of Marguerite de Navarre, 
became a disciple of Martin Luther. He was 
named Roussel, and had been a professor of 
philosophy in the University of Paris. He had 
travelled in Germany, had met Luther, and Ead 
all but accepted his religion, when, returning 
to Beam, he came into favour with the learned 
Marguerite, who nominated him Bishop of 
Oloron. He hesitated between the two relig- 
ions, knowing not which to take. Meantime 
he professed both one and the other; in the 
morning he was for Rome, and in the evening 
for Luther ; and preaching thus in the churches 
and temples he became a natural enemy of 
both parties. One day he was summarily des- 
patched by a blow with a hatchet which one of 
his parishioners had concealed upon his person 
as he came to church. For this act the mur- 
derer was, in the reign of Henri IV, made 
Bishop of Oloron in the unworthy Roussel 's 
place. 

Six kilometres from Oloron, at Eysus, a tiny 
hamlet too small to be noted in most guide 



328 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

books, is an old Chateau de Plaisance of the 
Vicomtes de Beam. Folks had the habit, even 
in the old days, of living around wherever fancy 
willed — the same as some of us do to-day. It 
has some advantages and not many disadvan- 
tages. 

Back of Oloron, towards the foot-hills of the 
Pyrenees, is another of those little kingdoms 
which were scattered all over France, and 
which only geographers and antiquarians know 
sufficiently well to be able to place offhand. 
This is the Baretous, and very curious it is 
with the survival of its old customs and cos- 
tumes. Up to Aramits the routes are much 
frequented, but as one penetrates further into 
the fastnesses of the mountains, there is an 
immense sadness that is as entrancing as the 
most vivid gaiety. Pushing through to the 
Spanish frontier, fifty kilometres or more be- 
yond Aramits, a whole kaleidoscope of moun- 
tain charms unrolls itself at every step. 

At the Spanish frontier limit, a quaint and 
curious ceremony is held on the thirteenth of 
July in each year by the Baretains and their 
Spanish neighbours. The Baretains, by an an- 
cient right, pasture their flocks up in the high 
valleys of the Eongal, and, to recognize the 
right of the Eongalois to keep them out of their 



Oloron and the Val d'Aspe 329 



pasturage if they so chose, the Baretains pay 
them homage. The ceremony is carried out 
before a notary, seven jurats being the repre- 
sentatives of the Baretains, each armed with 
a pike, as are the representatives of Kongal. 
The first lay down their pikes before the latter, 
and, in a second layer, their points turned 
towards the Bearnais capital, are placed those 
of the RouQalois. Then a shout of acclama- 
tion goes up and rends the air : ' ' Patz abantz ! 
Patz abantz ! Patz abantz ! — Peace for the fu- 
ture! " This is the signal for a general rejoi- 
cing, and a merry-making of dancing and eating 
and drinking, not far different from other 
fetes. It is the setting that makes it so remark- 
able, and the quaint costumes and customs of 
the men and women of two nations mingling in 
a common fete. 

This Franco-Espagnol ceremony is accom- 
plished with much eclat on a little square of 
ground set off on the maps of the :fitat Major 
as " Champ de Foire Frangais et Espagnol." 
Tradition demands that three cows be given or 
offered to the Spanish by the French for the 
privilege of pasturage over the border in the 
Spanish valleys. The cows are loosed on the 
Champ de Foire, and if they remain for half 
an hour without crossing the line into France 



330 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

again they belong to the Spanish. If, on the 
other hand, one or more cross back into France 
they remain the property of the French. 

Formerly three horses were used for this 
part of the function, but as they were bound 
to have a white star on the forehead, and as 
that variety of beast is rare in these parts, a 
compromise was made to carry out the pact 
with the cows. 

The most historic spot in the Gave d'Aspe is 
unquestionably Sarrance. Notre Dame de Sar- 
rance is a venerable and supposedly miraculous 
statue. Numbers of pilgrims have visited the 
shrine in times past, among them the none too 
constant Louis XI, who, if he was devoted to 
Our Lady of Clery and Notre Dame de Em- 
brun, was ready to bow down before any whom 
he thought might do him a good turn. 

Certainly Sarrance 's most favourite memory 
is that of the celebrated Marguerite de Na- 
varre. If she did not write, she at least con- 
ceived the idea of her " Heptameron " here, 
if history is to be believed. 

The title page of this immortal work reads as 
follows, 

L'HEPTAMERON 

<' des nouvelles de tres illustr6 et tres excellente 
princesse, Marguerite de Valois, Reinede Navarre." 



Oloron and the Val d'Aspe 331 

The history of the inception of these tales is 
often inexactly recounted at this late day, but 
in the main the facts seem to be as follows : — 

In September (1549?), when the queen and 
her followers were journeying from Cauterets 
to Tarbes, the waters of the Gave overflowed 
their banks and destroyed the bridge of Sar- 
rance. The party stopped first at the Abbaye 
de Saint Savin, and again at the Monastere de 
Notre Dame de Sarrance. Ten days were ne- 
cessary to repair the bridge which had been 
carried away, and time apparently hung heavy 
on the hands of every one. To break the ennui 
of their sojourn in the company of these austere 
monks of Sarrance, the royal party sought what 
amusements they might. 

In the morning all met with the Dame Oy- 
sille, the eldest of the company, when they had 
an hour's reading of the Scriptures. After this 
there was a mass; then at ten o'clock they 
dined ; finally each retired to his room — '' pour 
ses affaires particulieres/' says the old record 
— presumably to sleep, though it was early in 
the day for that. In the afternoon {" depuis 
midi jusques a quatres heures," ran the old 
chronicle) they all assembled in the meadow by 
the river's bank beneath the trees, and each, 
seated at his ease, recounted such salacious sat- 



332 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

ires and tales as would have added to tlie fame 
of Boccaccio. This procedure went on until the 
tellers of tales were interrupted by the coming 
of the prior who called them to vespers. 

These tales or " contes," or '' petites his- 
toires," or whatever one chooses to call them, 
free of speech and of incident as was the cus- 
tom of the time, were afterwards mothered by 
the queen of Navarre, and given to the world 
as the product of her fertile mind. Judging 
from their popularity at that time, and since, 
the fair lady must have been a wonderful story- 
teller. 

The gentle slopes of a prairie along the banks 
of the Gave near by is the reputed spot where 
these tales were told, — a spot ' ' where the sun 
could not pierce the thick foliage," certainly 
romantically and picturesquely endowed. The 
site is charming, and one can picture the scene 
all out again for himself if he is possessed of 
the least bit of imaginative sense. 

Still following the valley of the Aspe upward, 
one comes next to Bedous, really a pretentious 
little city, but unheard of by conventional trav- 
ellers. Everything begins to take on a Spanish 
hue, and the church, dating from 1631, is more 
Spanish than French in its architecture and 
all its appointments. All the commercial life 



Oloron and the Val d'Aspe 333 

of the valley centres here, and a mixed Franco- 
Espagnol traffic goes on. It is principally the 
trading of cattle, sheep and wool, with an oc- 
casional porker or a donkey sold, or bargained 
for, on the side. Bedous has been marked out 
as being the terminus of a railway line yet to 
be built. Until the times shall be propitious 
for pushing the railway on into Spain the town 
will remain simply what it has been for cen- 
turies. When that day comes, much of the 
charm of the region will be gone. The automo- 
bile is no such desecrator as the railway, let 
scoffers say what they will. 

In the valley of the Aspe, with snow-capped 
mountains in full view, there is a surprising 
softness of climate all through the year. In 
this valley was the last refuge of Protestant- 
ism in the days of the religious wars, and the 
little village of Bedous still possesses a '' tem- 
ple " and a '^ pastor." 

Above Bedous, towards the crest of the Pyr- 
enees, is Accous, and as one progresses things 
become more and more Spanish, until the sign 
" Posada " is as frequent as " Auherge." 

Accous offers no curiosities to visitors, but 
it was here that Victor Hugo gave the last 
glimpses of Jean Val jean when the police were 
close upon his trail; " at the place called the 



334 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

Grange de Doumec, near the hamlet of Cha- 
villes," ran the romance. 

From this point the valley of the Aspe opens 
almost perpendicularly into the heart of the 
rock wall of the Pyrenees; it is a veritable 
chasm in its upper reaches; and in this rocky 
defile was once a tiny feudality, absorbed and 
later wiped into oblivion by the Eevolution. 

Beyond Sar ranee are Urdos and Somport 
and the fortress of Portalet. The route was 
known to the ancients as that through which 
the Saracens came from Spain to over-run 
southern Gaul. Somport was the Summus 
Pyreneus of the old-time historians of the 
Komans. 



CHAPTER XXIII 

OBTHEZ AND THE GAVE d'OLOBON 

Okthez is another of those cities of the Pyre- 
nees which does not live up to its possibilities, 
at least not in a commercial sense. Neverthe- 
less, some of us find it all the more delightful 
for that. It is a city where the relics of the 
Middle Ages and the Renaissance are curiously 
intermingled, and if one within its walls so 
chose he could imagine himself as living in the 
past as well as in the present, and this in spite 
of the fact that the city has been remodelled 
and restored in certain quarters out of all sem- 
blance to its former self. 

There is little or nothing remaining of that 
time which Froissart described with such mi- 
nuteness when writing of the court at Orthez' 
chateau. 

All that remains of this great pile is the 
Tour de Moncade, but from its grandeur and 
commanding site one realizes well enough that 
in its time it was hardly overshadowed by the 
better preserved edifices at Pau and Foix. 

335 



336 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

At the northeast of Ovtliez, on a lull over- 
looking the city is an ancient, rectangular 
tower, its sides mellowed by ages, and its crest 
in ruins. 

** Sarc::-vous cc que sout ccs ruiucs? " you 
ask of any one, and they will tell you that it is 
all that remains of tlie tine chateau of Gaston 
Pluvbus. Ffc^tes and crimes were curiously in- 
termingled within its walls, for always little 
rivulets of blood flowed in mediawal times as 
the accompaniment of the laughter of the feast. 

Gaston de Foix, after the burning of his cha- 
teau, came to Orthez in the thirteenth century, 
and began the citadel of Orthez — the "" chd- 
teau-rwhle " of the chronicles of Froissart. 
The edifice played an important role in the his- 
tory of Beam. 

At that time Gaston was a vassal of Ed- 
ward III. of England who was then making a 
Crusade in the Ea_st. On his return he found 
this ** chdteau-nohlc " already built, and his 
surprise was great, for he knew not what it 
portended. Pie concluded that it could only 
mean the rebellion of his vassal, and he ordered 
the Seneschal of Gascony to demand the sur- 
render of the property. When this was refused 
Edward seized it and all the domains of Boarn, 
and sent Gerard de Laon as envoy to put the 



Orthez and the G-ave d'Oloron '^'47 



new political machinery in running order. The 
envoy entered Orthez without the least ob- 
stacle being put in his way, but in an instant 
the gates were closed and he was made a pris- 
oner. Irritated by this outrage, Edward, at 
the head of an imposing army, marched on 
Orthez. Gaston, seized with fear, lost his head, 
and made up his mind to surrender before he 
was attacked. No protestations of future de- 
votion to his overlord would, however, be ac- 
cepted, and Edward made him prisoner on the 
spot. To regain his liberty, Gaston promised 
to turn over the '' Fortresse d 'Orthez " but, 
when he was set free, he established himself 
with a doubled garrison behijid his walls and 
prepared for resistance. Edward pleaded for 
justice and honourable dealing, and a quarrel, 
long and animated, followed. The affair took 
on such proportions that the Pope sent his 
legate, as an intermediary, to make peace. 
Gaston would hear of no compromise, and called 
upon the king of France to take his part. A 
sort of council was finally arranged, during 
which Gaston became so exasperated that he 
threw his glove in the face of the English king. 
He begged the king's pardon afterwards, and 
an agreement was reached whereby everything 
was left as it had been before the quarrel began. 



338 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

Many imperishable souvenirs are left of the 
reign at Orthez of the brilliant Gaston de Foix, 
when tourneys and fetes followed in rapid suc- 
cession. It was Orthez' most brilliant epoch. 

It was here, to the court of Gaston Phoebus, 
that Messire Jehan Froissart came, in 1388, 
and stayed three weeks and some of his most 
brilliant pages relate to this visit. Of his host, 
the chronicler said: " De toutes choses il est si 
par fait/' 

Gaston Phoebus was so powerful and mag- 
nificent a Seigneur in his own right, and his 
castle at Orthez was such a landmark of history 
that Louis XI — who conceded little enough 
to others as a usual thing — said to his follow- 
ers as he was passing through Bearnais terri- 
tory on a pilgrimage: *' Messeigneurs, laissez 
Vepee de France, nous sortons ici du royaume." 

Gaston Phoebus was the most accomplished 
seigneur of his time, and he had for his motto 
'' Toquos-y se gaasos '* — *' Attack who dares." 

One day, in the month of August, 1390, on 
returning from a bear hunt, greatly fatigued, 
he was handed a cup from which to drink. He 
drank from the cup and instantly expired. 
Was he poisoned? That is what no one knows. 
It was the custom of the time to make away 
with one's enemies thus, and in this connection 







The Pont d'Orthez 



Orthez and the Gave d'Oloron 339 

one recalls that Gaston himself killed his own 
son because he would not eat at table. 

Orthez was deserted by the court for Pau, 
and in time the natural destruction of wind 
and weather, and the hand of man, strifjped the 
chateau to what one sees to-day. 

The Pont d 'Orthez is a far better preserved 
monument of feudal and warlike times, and it 
was a real defence to the city, as can be readily 
understood by all who view it. Its four hardy 
arches span the Gave as they did in the thir- 
teenth and fourteenth centuries. It was from 
the summit of one of the sentinel towers of this 
most remarkable of mediaeval bridges that the 
soldiers of Montgomery obliged the monks to 
throw themselves into the river below. The 
*' Brothers of the Bridge " were a famous in- 
stitution in mediaeval times, and they should 
have been better treated than they usually 
were, but too frequently indeed they were mas- 
sacred without having either the right or the 
means to defend themselves. 

The history of Montgomery's connection 
with Orthez, or more particularly the Pont 
d 'Orthez, reads almost as if it were legend, 
though indeed it is truth. The story is called 
by the French historians ^' La Chronique de la 
Tour des Caperas.'* 



340 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

Jeanne d'Albret, the mainstay of Protestant- 
iem in her day, wished to make Orthez the re- 
ligious capital, and accordingly she built here 
a splendid church in which to expound the the- 
ories of Calvin and brought " professors " 
from Scotland and England to preach the new 
dogma. Orthez became at once the point of 
attack for those of the opposite faith, and as 
horrible a massacre as was ever known took 
place in the streets of Orthez and gave perhaps 
the first use of the simile that the river flowed 
as a river of blood. Priests and monks were 
the special prey of the Protestants, while they 
themselves were being attacked from without. 
One by one as they were hunted out from their 
hiding-places the priests and lay brothers were 
pushed from the parapet of the bridge into the 
Gave below. If any gained the banks by swim- 
ming they were prodded and stabbed by still 
other soldiery with lances, and from this great 
noyade the great Tour des Caperas became 
known as the Tour des Pretres, 

To-day Montauban and Orthez have rela- 
tively the largest Protestant populations of any 
of the cities of France. 

The old Route Royale between Bayonne and 
the capital of Beam and Navarre passed 
through Orthez, and the same narrow streets. 



Orthez and the Gave d'Oloron 341 

irregular, badly paved, and badly kept up, are 
those which one traverses to-day on entering 
and leaving the city. One great improvement 
has been made in the ancient quarter of the 
town — though of course one does not know 
what historical souvenirs it may have sup- 
planted — and that is the laying out of a mail 
or mall, planted on either side with great elms, 
and running from the banks of the Gave to the 
fine fifteenth - century — but still Gothic — 
church, well at the centre of the town. 

The ^' jamhons de Bayonne " are mostly 
cured at Orthez, and it is indeed the leading 
industry of the city. The porkers of Orthez 
may not be corn fed, but they are well and 
cleanly nourished, which is more than can be 
said of many *' domesticated pigs " in New 
and Old England, which are eaten with a great 
relish by those who have brought them up. 

In the religious wars Orthez played a grand 
role, and in 1814 it was the scene of one of the 
great struggles of France against alien inva- 
sion of her territory. Just north of the city, 
on the height of a flanking hill, Wellington — 
at the head of a force very much superior, let 
no one forget — inflicted a blood^' defeat on 
Marechal Soult. The Due de Dalmatie lost, it 
is recorded, nearly four thousand men, but he 



342 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

wounded or killed six thousand in the same 
engagement. General Foy here received his 
fourth wound on the field of battle. 

Orthez is one of the really great feudal cities 
of the south of France. In the ninth century 
it was known as Orthesium, and belonged to 
the Vicomtes de Dax, who, only when they were 
conquered by Gaston III, Prince of Beam, 
ceded the city to the crown of Beam and Na- 
varre. 

It was in the chateau of Orthez that the un- 
fortunate Blanche of Castille, daughter of the 
king of Aragon, was poisoned by her sister, 
the wife of Gaston IV, Comte de Foix. This 
was one of the celebrated crimes of history, 
though for that matter the builder of the cha- 
teau, the magnificent (sic) Gaston Phoebus, 
committed one worthy to rank with it when he 
killed his brother and " propre fils " on the 
mere suspicion that they might some day be 
led to take sides against him. 

Orthez flourished greatly under its Protes- 
tant princes, but it waned and all but dwindled 
away in the unpeaceful times immediately fol- 
lowing upon the revocation of the Edict of 
Nantes. The cessation of the practice of the 
arts of industry, and very nearly those of com- 
merce, left the city poor and impoverished, and 



Orthez and the Gave d'Oloron 343 

it is only within recent generations that it has 
arisen again to importance. 

The donjon of Moncade is all that remains 
of the once proud chateau where Gaston Phcje- 
bus held more than one brilliant court on his 
excursions beyond the limits of his beloved 
Foix. It dominates the whole region, however, 
and adds an accentuated note of grimness to 
the otherwise gay melody of the Gave as it 
flows down to join the Adour from the high 
valleys of the Pyrenees. 

On the opposite hillside is a memorial in 
honour of the brave General Foy, which will 
recall to some the victory of Wellington over 
Soult, and to others, who have not forgotten 
their Dumas, the fact that it was General Foy 
who first gave the elder Dumas his start as 
writer of romances. 

Salies de Beam is a near neighbour of Or- 
thez, and can be omitted from no Pyrenean 
itinerary. The bustling little market- town and 
watering-place combined dates, as to the foun- 
dation of its great industry, back to the tenth 
century, when the Due de Gascogne gave to the 
monks of the Monastery of Saint Pe an estab- 
lishment ready fitted that they might commence 
the industry of recovering salt from the neigh- 
bouring salt springs. All through mediaeval 



344 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

times, and down as late as 1840, the industry 
was carried on under the old concession. 

All the distractions of a first-class watering- 
place may be had here to-day, and the '' sea- 
son " is on from May to September. The city 
is the birthplace of Colonel Dambourges, who 
became famous for his defence of Quebec 
against the English in 1775. 

At Salies is still the house which sheltered 
Jeanne d 'Albret when she took the waters here, 
and not far away is the spot where died Gas- 
ton Phoebus, as he was returning from a bear 
hunt. These two facts taken together make 
of Salies hallowed historic ground. 

At Salies de Beam one recalls a scrap of 
literary history that is interesting; Dumas 
pere certainly got inspiration for the names of 
his three mousquetaire heroes from hereabouts. 
Not far away is Athos — which he gave to 
the Comte de la Fere, while Aramits and Ar- 
tagnan are also near-by. In any historical light 
further than this they are all unimportant how- 
ever. 

Six kilometres to the northward is the Cha- 
teau de Bellocq, a fine mediaeval country house 
(fourteenth century), though unroofed to-day, 
the residence of Jeanne d 'Albret when she so- 
journed in the neighbourhood. The walls, 



Orthez and the Gave d'Oloron 345 

flanked with four great round towers, are ad- 
mirably preserved, and the vaulting and its 
ribs, two square towers and a great entrance 
gate show the manner of building of the time 
with great detail. 

Five leagues from Orthez, on a little valley 
plain, watered by the Gave d'Oloron, is the 
tiny little city of Navarreux. Its population is 
scarce above a thousand, but it is the centre 
of affairs for twenty-five communes, contain- 
ing perhaps twelve thousand souls. It is a typ- 
ical, bustling, little Pyrenean metropolis, and 
the comings and goings on market-day at the 
little Hotel de France are as good an illustra- 
tion of the life and manners of a people of 
small affairs as one will find in a year of travel. 

Henri d'Albret of Navarre picked out the 
site of the city in the midst of this fertile plain, 
and planned that it should increase and mul- 
tiply, if not in population, at least in pros- 
perity, though it was at first a '' private enter- 
prise," like Richelieu's garden-city in Touraine. 

The preeminence of Navarreux was short 
lived. Henri d'Albret had built it on the 
squared-off, straight-street, Chicago plan, had 
surrounded it with walls, and even had a for- 
tress built by Vauban, in the expectation of 
making it the commercial capital of the Pyre- 



346 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

nees, but man proposes, and the lines of com- 
munication or trade disposes, and many a 
thought - to - be - prosperous town has finally 
dwindled into impotency. There was a good 
deal in the favour of Navarreux; its situation 
was central, and it was surrounded by a nu- 
merous population, but its dream was over in 
a couple of hundred years and the same year 
(1790) saw both its grandeur and its deca- 
dence. 

To-day it remains still a small town, tied to 
the end of an omnibus line which runs out from 
Orthez a dozen or fifteen kilometres away. 
The fortifications of Vauban are still there and 
a remarkable old city gate, called the Porte St. 
Antoine, a veritable gem of feudal architecture. 
The very dulness and disappointment of the 
place appeal to one hugely. One might do 
worse than doze away a little while here after 
a giddy round at Pan or Biarritz. Navarreux 
is of the past and lives in the past ; it will never 
advance. As a fortress it has been unclassed, 
but its walls one day guarded — as a sort of 
last line of defence — the route from Spain via 
Bongevaux and Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port. In 
those days it certainly occupied a proud posi- 
tion in intent and in reality, as its citadel sat 
high on a little terrace-plateau, dominated in 




The ITa/Is of Xavarreux 



Orthez and the Gave d'Oloron 347 

turn by the red dome of its church still higher 
up. The effect is still much the same, impotent 
though the city walls and ramparts have be- 
come. 

The route into Navarreux from the south is 
almost a tree-shaded boulevard, and crosses 
the Gave on an old five-arched bridge, so nar- 
row that one vehicle can scarcely pass, — to 
say nothing of two. This picturesque bridge 
was also the work of Henri d'Albret, the 
founder of the primitive city. This first foun- 
dation was a short distance from the present 
village. Its founder in a short time came to 
believe he had made a mistake, and that the 
bourg as it was placed would be too difficult 
to defend, so he tore it down in real northwest 
Dakota fashion, and built the present city. 
Louis XIV and Vauban had great plans for 
it, and would have done much, but Oloron in 
time relieved it of all pretensions to a distinc- 
tion, as, in turn. Pan robbed Oloron. 

Between Navarreux and Sauveterre, along 
the Gave d'Oloron, is a whole string of little 
villages and hamlets whose names are scarcely 
ever mentioned except by the local postman. 
It is a winsome valley, and the signs of civili- 
zation, pale though they be, throw no ugly shad- 
ows on the landscape. Midway between these 



348 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

two little centres is Audaux, which possesses a 
vast seventeenth-century chateau, flanked with 
a series of high coiffed pavilions and great 
domes, like that of Valen^ay in Touraine. 

Its history is unimportant, and is rather 
vague, but a mere glance at its pompous or- 
nateness is a suggestion of the great contrast 
between the chateaux of the north and centre 
of France and those of the Midi. In the north 
the great residential chateaux, as contrasted 
with the fortress-chateaux, were the more nu- 
merous; here the reverse was the case, and 
the feudal chateau, which was more or less of 
a fortress, predominated. The Chateau d 'Au- 
daux, sitting high on its own little plateau, 
and surrounded by great chestnut trees, is al- 
most the peer of its class in these parts — from 
a grandiose architectural view point at any 
rate. 

Sauveterre, twenty kilometres from Navar- 
reux, is one of those old-time bourgs which puts 
its best side forward when viewed from a dis- 
tance. Eeally it is nothing but a grim old ruin, 
so far as its appeal for the pilgrim goes. Close 
acquaintance develops a squalor and lacka- 
daisical air which is not in the least in keeping 
with that of its neighbours. It is the ensemble 
of its rooftops and its delightful site which gives 



Oloron and the Val d'Aspe 349 

Sauveterre almost its only charm. In the Mid- 
dle Ages it was a fortified town which played 
a considerable part in olden history. To-day 
the sole evidence that it was a place of any 
importance is found in a single remaining arch 
of its old bridge, surmounted by a defending 
tower similar to those which guard the bridges 
at Orthez and Cahors, but much smaller. 

There is another relic still standing of Sauve- 
terre 's one-time greatness, but it is outside the 
town itself. The grim, square donjon of the 
old Chateau de Montreal rises on a hilltop op- 
posite the town, and strikes the loudest note 
of all the superb panorama of picturesque sur- 
roundings. It was the guardian of the fate of 
Sauveterre in feudal times, and it is the guar- 
dian, or beacon, for travellers by road to-day 
as they come up or down the valley. 

Within the town there is, it should be men- 
tioned, a really curious ecclesiastical monu- 
ment, the thirteenth-century church, with a 
combination of Eomanesque and Gothic con- 
struction which is remarkable; so remarkable 
is it that in spite of its lack of real beauty the 
French Government has classed it as a '' Mon- 
ument Historique." The sublime panorama of 
the Pyrenees frames the whole with such a gra- 
cious splendour that one is well-minded to take 



350 Old Navarre and tlie Basque Provincp^. 

the picture for the sake of the frame. This 
may be said of Tarbes as well, which is a really 
banal great town, but which has perhaps the 
most delightful Pyrenean background that ex- 
ists. 

Sauveterre is another centre for the manu- 
facture of rope-soled espadrilles, which in An- 
glo-Saxon communities are used solely by bath- 
ers at the seaside, but which are really the 
most comfortable and long-enduring footwear 
ever invented, and are here, and in many other 
parts of France, worn by a majority of the 
population. 

Up out of the valley of the Oloron and down 
again into that of the Bidouze, a matter of 
eighteen or twenty kilometres, and one comes 
to Saint-Palais which formerly disputed the 
title of capital of French Navarre with Saint- 
Jean-Pied-de-Port. This was because Henri 
d'Albret, king of Navarre, established his 
chancellerie here after the loss of Pamplona to 
Spain. 

Saint-Palais is what the French call a '' ville 
mignonne." Nothing else describes it. It sits 
jauntily perched on a tongue of mother earth, 
at the juncture of the Joyeuse and the Bidouze, 
and its whitewashed houses, its tiled roofs and 
its washed-down dooryards and pavements sug- 



Orthez and the Gave d'Oloron 351 

gest that some of its inhabitants must one day 
have been in Holland, a place where they pay 
more attention to this sort of house-cleaning 
than anywhere else. 

Saint-Palais has no historical monuments; 
all is as new and shining as Monte Carlo or 
the Digue at Ostend, but its history of long ago 
is important. Before 1620 it was the seat of 
the sovereign court of French Navarre and 
possessed a mint where the money of the little 
state was coined. 

The most distinctive architectural monument 
of Saint-Palais, the modern church and the 
hybrid Palais de Justice being strictly ineli- 
gible, is the fronton for the game of pelote, 
Saint-Palais being one of the head centres for 
the sport. 

Arthur Young, a great traveller, an agricul- 
turist, and a writer of repute, passed this way 
in 1787. He made a good many true and just 
observations, more or less at hazard, of things 
French, and some others that were not so just. 
The following can hardly be literally true, and 
if true by no means proves that Jacques Bon- 
homme is not as good a man as his cousin John 
Bull, nor even that he is not as well nourished. 
" Chacun a son gout! " He said, writing of the 
operation of getting dinner at his inn : * ' I saw 



352 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

them preparing the soup, the colour of which 
was not inviting; ample provision of cabbage, 
grease and water, and about as much meat, for 
a score of people, as half a dozen Suffolk farm- 
ers would have eaten, and grumbled at their 
host for short commons." What a condemna- 
tion to be sure, and what an unmerited one! 
The receipt is all right, as far as it goes, but 
he should have added a few leeks, a couple of 
carrots and an onion or two, and then he would 
have composed a houilli as fragrant and nour- 
ishing as the Englishman's chunks of blood-red 
beef he is for ever talking about. Our " agri- 
culturist " only learned half his lesson, and 
could not recite it very well at that. 

In the midst of a great plain lying between 
Saint-Palais, Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port and Ba- 
yonne, perhaps fifty kilometres south of the 
left bank of the Adour, are the neighbouring 
little towns of Iholdy and Armendarits. The 
former is the market town of a vast, but little 
populated, canton, and a village as purely rus^ 
tic and simple as one could possibly imagine. 
Iholdy and its few unpretentious little shops 
and its quaint unworldly little hotel caters only 
to a thin population of sheep and pig growers, 
and their wants are small, save when they go 
afield to Peyrehorade, St. Jean or Bayonne. 



Orthez and the Gave d'Oloron 353 

One eats of the products of the country here, 
and enjoys them, too, even if mutton, lamb 
and little pig predominate. The latter may or 
may not be thought a delicacy, but certainly it 
was better here than was ever met with before 
by the writer of these lines; and no prejudice 
prevented a second helping. 

Armendarits, Ilioldy's twin community, saw 
the birth of Eenaud d'Elissagory, who built 
what was practically the first gunboat. The 
birthplace of " Petit Renaud," as he was, and 
is still, affectionately called, the inventor of 
galiotes a homhes, is still inhabited and reck- 
oned as one of the sights of these parts. 



CHAPTER XXIV 

THE BIRTH OF FEENCH NAVARRE 




^earn anQ JVavarre 










Hi 



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'"^ G N t 



:aj 



Basse-Navarre or Navarre-Frangaise, to- 
gether witli Beam, made, under the Emperor 
Hadrian, a part of Aquitaine, 

The Roman conquest of Gaul was the first 
impetus given towards a coherent massing of 
the peoples. Formerly there had been many- 
tribes and races, but the three divisions made 
by the Romans reduced things to a minimum. 
Cisalpine Gaul was that part where the inhab- 

864 



The Birth of French Navarre 355 

itants wore a sort of adaptation of the Roman 
toga. In Trans-Alpine Gaul, situated in the 
Rhone basin and along the Mediterranean be- 
tween Italy and Spain, the inhabitants wore 
braies or hragues — a sort of jacket extending 
down almost to the knees, a detail of dress 
which has evolved itself into the blouse, and 
perhaps even the great cloak of the mountain- 
eers of the Pyrenees. The remainder of an- 
cient Gaul was known as the country where the 
natives wore their long hair hanging, — liter- 
ally the Gaule chevelue. 

Through the times of Caesar the divisions 
became indifferently known by various names, 
until with Augustus there came to be four 
great divisions, the Narbonnaise, Aquitaine, 
Lyonnaise and Belgique. 

Towards the fifth century the Vascons, or 
Gascons, the ancient inhabitants of Spanish 
Cantabria, established themselves snugly in 
these well protected valleys of the Pyrenees. 
They warred with the Saracens, and for five 
centuries were in a continual uproar of battle 
and bloodshed. 

Among themselves, the dukes and counts of 
Gascogne quarrelled continuously, and dis- 
puted the sovereignty of the country with the 
Vicomtes de Beam. 



356 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

In the ninth centnry a treaty was consum- 
mated which assured to Bernard, Comte d'Ar- 
magnac, the Comte de Gascogne, and to Gaston 
de Centulle the suzerainty of Beam, while 
Navarre came by heritage to the Comtes de 
Champagne, and in the thirteenth century to 
Philippe-le-Bel as a dot with Jeanne, his wife. 
In the same manner it came to the house of 
Evreux through Jeanne II, daughter of Louis- 
le-Hutin. 

With the marriage of Blanche II, the grand- 
daughter of Jeanne II, Navarre passed to the 
king of Aragon and to Eleonore, and later with 
the Comte de Foix et de Bigorre and the Vi- 
comte de Beam, went to Jean, Sieur d'Albret, 
with whom the history of the kingdom is so 
commonly associated, 

Jean d'Albret II, by reason of his marriage 
with Catherine of Beam, the heiress to the 
crown of Navarre, became joint ruler of the 
kingdom. He was a gentle, easy-going prince, 
liberal, but frivolous, and loved no serious oc- 
cupation in life. He was popular to excess and 
dined, say the chronicles, '' without ceremony, 
with any one who asked him," a custom which 
still obtains with many who are not descend- 
ants of a king of Navarre. He danced fre- 
quently in public with the wives and daugh- 



The Birth of French Navarre 357 

ters of his subjects, a democratic proceeding 
which was not liked by his court, who told him 
that he '^ danced on a volcano." This in a 
measure was true, for he lost that part of the 
kingdom known as Spanish Navarre to Ferdi- 
nand of Aragon. 

Up to the commencement of the sixteenth 
century, the Royaume de Navarre occupied 
both slopes of the Pyrenees and had Pamplona 
for its capital, but in 1512, Ferdinand the 
Catholic, of Aragon, with the approbation of 
the Pope, usurped most of the territory and 
left the king of Navarre, the legitimate sove- 
reign, only a small morsel eight leagues long 
by five in width, with St. Jean-Pied-de-Porte 
as its principal city. 

A picturesque figure was Ferdinand, King of 
Aragon on his own part, King of Castille by 
Ms wife Isabella, and King of Grenada by con- 
quest; '* a heritor of three bastard crowns," 
he was called. At his death he was succeeded 
by the infamous and cruel Charles V. 

That which remained, French Navarre, was 
the portion of the united kingdom lying on the 
French slopes of the Pyrenees. The loss of 
the Spanish province was really due to the ex- 
communication of Jean d'Albret and Catherine 



358 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

by the Pope, thus giving the Catholic Ferdi- 
nand power to compel a division. 

The then ruling monarchs of Beam and 
Navarre came to a sad realization of their 
position. It was this circumstance which gave 
birth to one of the famous mots of history. 
'* If we had not been born, we would not have 
lost Navarre," said the unhappy Catherine to 
her spouse. 

Previously, though, the region had been 
known as Basse-Navarre; and in Spanish, 
Navarra Baja, and had had its ^tats or Parle- 
ment, and its own special laws. Its Parlement 
was composed of three orders, the clergy, the 
noblesse and the tiers. Two great families 
stood out in Basse-Navarre in these times 
above all others, the Seigneurs de Grammont 
et Bidache and those of Lux and Ostabat. 
Beam at the time was composed of twelve an- 
cient baronies, the bishoprics of Lescar and 
Oloron, and the seigneuries of Navailles, An- 
doins, Lescun, Correze, Miossens, Arros and 
Lons. 

French Navarre — the Navarre-Frangaise — 
was by this time a reality and has been vari- 
ously known since to historians ; to the French 
as Basse-Navarre and Navarre du Nord; to 
the Spaniards as Navarra Baja; to the Basques 



The Birth of French Navarre 359 

as Navarra-deca-ports, and Navarra-f rangia ; 
and to the kings of France as the Royaume de 
Navarre. 

Henri, son of Jean d'Albret, married the 
first Marguerite de Valois, sister of Francois I, 
the " Marguerite of Marguerites," The only- 
daughter of this marriage was wed with An- 
toine Bourbon- Vendome and became the mother 
of Henri IV. 

By an edict of 1620 Louis XIII united the 
crown of France with that of Navarre, Beam 
and the other patrimonial states. Such is the 
evolution of the little Royaume de Navarre and 
its incorporation into French domain. 

The king of Navarre's title was a formidable 
one, and even included the word monsieur. 
Princes, bishops, popes and saints were at that 
time known as Monsieur, a title even more dig- 
nified than Monseigneur, and the " Messieurs 
de France " were as much of the noblesse of 
France as were the " Milords d'Angleterre " 
of the nobility of England. 

The full title of the king of Navarre in the 
fifteenth century was as follows : — 

Monsieur Frangois-Phoebus, par la grace de 
Diou, Roi de Navarre, Due de Nemours, de 
Guandi, de Montblanc et de Penafiel, et, par la 
meme grace Comte de Foix, Seigneur de Beam, 




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362 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

Comte de Bigorre et de Eivegorce, Vicomte de 
Castelbon, de Marsau, Gavardan et Nebouzan, 
Seigneur de la ville de Valaguer et Pair de 
France. 

The arms of Navarre have ever been a mys- 
tery to antiquarians, but it seems there is some 
ambiance of Basque tradition and folk-lore in 




The Arms of Navarre 



it all, in that there is an old Basque game which 
is played upon a diagram, or scale, traced upon 



The Birth of French Navarre 363 

the ground, and following the principal out- 
lines of the blazonings of the ancient kings of 
Navarre. Which came first, the hen or the 
egg'i 

Authorities differ, and so it is with the Basque 
game of laz Marellas, and the royal arms of 
the Navarres. Labastide says the game came 
down from the time when the Basques of to- 
day were originally Phoenicians. If this be so, 
the royal arms were but a copy of something 
that had gone before. Certainly they form as 
curious and enigmatic an armorial device as 
is found in heraldry. 

The Royaume de Navarre has so completely 
disappeared and been so absorbed by France 
that it takes a considerable knowledge of geog- 
raphy and history to be able to place it pre- 
cisely upon the map of modern Europe, hidden 
away as it was in what are now the two arron- 
dissements of Bayonne and Saint-Palais. 

They were a noble race, the men of Beam 
and Navarre, the Basques especially, and the 
questionable traits of the cagots and gj'^psies 
have left but little impress on the masses. 

Henri IV, faithful in his sentiment for his 
first subjects, would have shown them his pre- 
dilection by allowing them to remain an inde- 
pendent monarchy. He would not that the 



364 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

kingdom of his mother be mingled with that 
of France, but intriguing counsel prevailed and 
the alliance was made, though Navarre escaped 
conquest and was still ruled by the sceptre of 
its legitimate sovereign. 

How near France came to being ruled by 
Navarre instead of Navarre by France is re- 
called by the following bit of recorded history, 
When Philippe V (le Long) came to the throne 
of France (1316) his right was contested by 
many princes. Among others the crown was 
claimed by Jeanne de Navarre, but an assembly 
of bishops, seigneurs and bourgeois of Paris 
declared for the Salic law — which proscribed 
the right to rule the French to one of the female 
sex, and this against feudal rights as they were 
known and protected in the satellite kingdoms 
surrounding the royal domain. It was agreed 
later (by Philippe-le-Long) that if the widow 
of Louis X should have another female child, 
the rights appertaining to Navarre should be- 
long to her and her stepsister Jeanne, making 
it an independent monarchy again. 

When Philippe-le-Bel came to the throne of 
France it was his wife Jeanne who, by common 
consent, administered the affairs of Navarre. 
She chased the Aragonians and Castilians from 
her fair province, and put her people into a state 



The Birth of French Navarre 365 

of security hitherto unknown. " She held," 
said Mezeray the historian, " every one en- 
chanted by her eyes, her ears, and her heart, 
and she was equally eloquent, generous and lib- 
eral." A veritable paragon of a woman evi- 
dently. 

Henri II, son of Catherine and Jean d'Albret 
II, succeeded to the throne of French Navarre 
at the age of thirteen. He followed the French 
king, Francois, to Italy, and was made pris- 
oner at the unfortunate battle of Pavia, finally 
escaping through a ruse. 

FranQois Premier, king of France, and Henri 
d'Albret, king of Navarre, each nourished an 
equal aversion for the king of Spain, the prime 
cause of that fateful day at Pavia. The first 
hated the Spanish monarch as a rival; the 
second as the usurper of his lands. They 
united arms, but the battle of Pavia, when ' ' all 
was lost save honour," gave matters such a 
setback that naught but time could overcome 
them. 

It was Henri II 's marriage with Marguerite 
of Valois, the Duchesse d'Alengon, in 1526, by 
which he acquired the Armagnac succession as 
a gift from his brother-in-law, Frangois Pre- 
mier, that brought to Navarre's crown nearly 
all of Guyenne. In 1555 the young king died 



366 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

at Pau, leaving a daughter, Jeanne d'Albret, 
who with her second husband, Antoine de Bour- 
bon, Due de Vendome, succeeded to the throne. 

The new rulers did not attempt or accom- 
plish much, save to embrace Calvinism with 
zeal. Suffice to recall the well-known facts that 
Antoine died in 1562 from a wound received 
in the siege of Rouen, and that Jeanne herself 
died from the poison of the wicked Catherine 
de Medici's gloves at Paris. 

Their son, Henri III of Navarre, was the 
Henri IV of France. Bom at Pau in 1553, he 
was first only the Comte de Viane. When he 
came to Paris he would not have allied his 
Pyrenean possessions with those of France but 
for the pressure brought to bear upon him. 
He declared that his ancestral lands should re- 
main entirely separate, but the procureur gen- 
eral, La Guesle, forced his hand, and it was 
thus that the Royaume de France became aug- 
mented by Basse-Navarre, the Comtes d'Ar- 
magnac, Foix, d'Albret and Bigorre, the Duche 
de Vendome, the Comte de Perigord and the 
Vicomte de Limoges. 

The story of Beam and Navarre, for most 
folk, begins with those kings of Navarre who 
were also kings of France. The first of these 
was the white-plumed knight Henri III, Prince 



The Birth of French Navarre 367 

of Beam, who became Henri IV of France. 
The France of the Valois, which strain died 
with Henri III, murdered by the black monk 
Clement, was much more narrow in its con- 
fines than now. In the northeast it lacked Lor- 
raine, Franche Comte, Bresse, Dombes and 
Bucey; in the south Roussillon, Beam and 
Basse-Navarre, and there was a sort of quasi- 
independence observed by the former great 
states of Bretagne, Bourgogne and Dauphine. 

With the coming of the king of Navarre to 
the throne of France, the three great move- 
ments which took place in the religious situa- 
tion, the manners and customs of the court and 
noblesse, and in the aspirations of the people 
gave an aspect of unity and solidarity to 
France. 

The religious question was already momen- 
tous when Henri IV was crowned, and Protes- 
tantism and its followers were gaining ground 
everywhere, though the real Frangais — the 
Guises and the Bourbons, the princes of Lor- 
raine and the '* princes of the blood " — were 
on the side of Catholicism, and had their swords 
ever unsheathed in its behalf. 

The court, in the midst of this great religious 
quarrel, was also in a state of transition. Cath- 
erine and her gay troupe of damsels had passed, 



368 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

as also had Charles IX, who died shortly after 
the Huguenot massacre of St. Bartholomew's 
night. His brother, and successor to the throne, 
Henri III, Due d'Anjou, was a weakling, and he 
too died miserably at the point of the assassin's 
knife, and few seemed to regret the passing 
of him who devoted himself more to monkeys, 
parrots and little dogs than to statecraft. 
Henri of Beam was the strong man in public 
view, and of him great things were expected 
by all parties in spite of his professed Cal- 
vinism of the time. 

It was during the reign of the feeble-witted 
Henri III that Henri, king of Navarre, became 
the titular head of the Huguenots ; thus abjur- 
ing the Catholic religion that he had previously 
embraced under pressure. The Protestant 
League became a powerful institution, and the 
gentilshommes of Beam, Guienne, Poitou and 
Dauphine became captains in the cause, just as 
the gentilshommes of Picardie and Artois be- 
came captains of Catholicism. The whole 
scheme was working itself out on traditional 
hereditary lines; it was the Protestantism of 
the mountains against the Catholicism of the 
lowlands. As for the people, the masses, they 
simply stood by and wondered, ready for any 
innovation which augured for the better. 




Arms of Henri IJ^ of France and Xavarre 



The Birth of French Navarre 369 

This was the state of France upon the coming 
of Henri IV to the throne, and the joining of 
Basse-Navarre and Beam to the royal domain. 

Unquestionably it is a fact that the feudal- 
ity in France ceased only with the passing of 
Louis XI, and the change in the Pyrenean 
states was contemporary. The Renaissance 
made great headway in France, after its im- 
portation from Italy at the hands of Charles 
VIII and his followers. Constantinople had 
been taken ; art and letters were everywhere in 
the ascendency; printing had been invented; 
and America was on the verge of being discov- 
ered. The golden days of the new civilization 
were about dawning. 

The Renaissance here in Beam and Navarre, 
under the shadow of the Pyrenees, flowered 
as it did nowhere else out of Italy, so far as 
its application to life and letters went. Many 
celebrated litterateurs and poets had been per- 
secuted and chased from France, and here they 
found a welcome refuge. To remark only two, 
Desperriers and Marat, it is interesting to note 
that the sympathetic Marguerite of Navarre 
took them under her patronage, and even made 
them valets de chamhre. 

Marguerite's passions were, according to the 
historians, noble, but according to the roman- 



370 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

cers they were worldly. Said Erasmus: " Elle 
etait chaste et peu sujette aux passions/' and 
contemporary historians agree with him ; while 
Marat, the poet valet de chambre, wrote the 
following : — 

" Que je suis serf d'un monstre fort strange, 
Monstre je dis, car pour tout vrai, elle a 
Corps f^miniu, coeur d'homme et t§te d'ange." 

In 1574 Brantome, the chronicler, had fin- 
ished his military career and was retained by 
Henri III of France as a gentleman of the bed- 
chamber. Here he passed through many af- 
fairs of intrigue and the heart. In 1581 he 
received a mission to go and interview the king 
of Navarre, for which he received the sum of 
six hundred ecus soleil. Wliat the subject of 
this mission was no one knows; there is no 
further mention of it either in the works of 
Brantome or the letters of the king of Navarre, 
but at any rate he became enamoured of Mar- 
guerite, and his account of his first meeting with 
her is one of the classic documents of French 
history. ^' I dare to say," said he, ^' that she 
was si belle et si admirable that all the three 
hundred persons of the assembly were ravished 
and astounded." 

It is on Marguerite of Navarre, no less than 



The Birth of French Navarre 371 

on the plumed Henry, that the popular interest 
in Navarre and its history has been built. 

A Brief Chronology of French and Spanish 
Navarre 

Spanish Navarre came to be annexed to the 
Spanish crown in 1512 through the efforts and 
energies of Ferdinand the Catholic king of 
Aragon. 

French Navarre virtually came to France in 
1328, but its independent monarchs since that 
time have been; 



Jeanne II (et Philippe) 




1328 


Charles II (le Mauvais) 




1349 


Charles IH 




1387 


Jean II (et Blanche) 




1425 


El^onore 




1479 


Phoebus de Foix 




1479 


Catherine (et Jean d'Albret IT) 




1484 


Henri U 




1517 


Jeanne d'Albret (et Antoine de 


Bourbon) 


1555 


Henri III 


1589-1610 



It was Henri III of Navarre who became 
Henri IV of France and it was he who first 
brought the little kingdom to the crown of 
France, the double title being borne by his suc- 
cessors up to the abdication of Charles X in 
1830. 



CHAPTER XXV 



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The Basque Country 

Most people, or certainly most women, con- 
nect tlie name basque with a certain article of 
ladies' wearing apparel. Just what its func- 
tions were, when it was in favour a generation 
ago, a mere man may not be supposed to know. 

372 



The Basques 373 

Theophile Gautier has something to say on the 
subject, so he doubtless knew ; and Victor Hugo 
delivered himself of the following couplet : — 

« C'^tait plaisir de voir danser la jeune fille; 
Sa basquiue agitait ses pailettes d'azur." 

The French Basques are divided into three 
families, the Souletins, the Bas-Navarrais and 
the Labourdins. They possess, however, the 
same language and other proofs of an identical 
origin in the simplicity and quaintness of their 
dress and customs. 

The Labourdin Basques inhabit the plains 
and valleys running down to the sea at the 
western termination of the Pyrenees, and live 
a more luxurious life than the Navarrais, even 
emigrating largely, and entering the service of 
the merchant and naval marine; whereas the 
Navarrais occupy themselves mostly with agri- 
culture (and incidentally are the largest meat 
eaters in France) and contribute their serv- 
ices only to the army. The contrast between 
the sailor and fisher folk of the coast, and the 
soldiers and farmers of the high valleys is re- 
markable, as to face and figure, if not readily 
distinguishable with respect to other details. 

The Labourdin Basques have a traditional 
history which is one of the most interesting 



374 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

and varied records of the races of western Eu- 
rope. In olden times the Golfe de Gascogne 
was frequented by great shoals of whales, and 
the Basques, harpooning them and killing them 
in the waters of their harbours, came to control 
the traffic. 

When the whale industry fell off, and the 
whales themselves receded to the south seas, 
the Basques went after them, and for long they 
held the supremacy as before, finally chasing 
them again to the Newfoundland Banks, which 
indeed it is claimed the Basques discovered. 
At any rate the whaling industry proved a suc- 
cessful and profitable commerce for the 
Basques, and perhaps led the way for their 
migration in large numbers to South America 
and other parts of the New World. 

Among the Basques themselves, and perhaps 
among others who have given study to the sub- 
ject, the claim is made that they were the real 
discoverers of the New World, long before 
Columbus sighted the western isles. Thus is 
the Columbus legend, and that of Leif, son of 
Eric, shattered by the traditions of a people 
whom most European travellers from overseas 
hardly know of as existing. It seems that a 
Spanish Basque, when on a voyage from Ba- 
yonne to Madeira, was thrown out of his course 



The Basques 375 

and at the mercy of the winds and waves, and 
finally, after many weeks, landed on the coast 
of Hayti. Columbus is thus proved a plagia- 
rist. 

The Basques as a race, both in France and 
in Spain, are a proud, jovial people, not in the 
least sullen, but as exclusive as turtle-doves. 
Unlike most of the peasants of Europe, whether 
at work or play, they march with head high, 
and beyond a grave little bow, scarcely, if ever, 
accost the stranger with that graciousness of 
manner which is usually customary with the 
farmer folk of even the most remote regions 
in France, those of the Cevennes or the upper 
valleys of Dauphine or Savoie. 

Upon acquaintance and recognition of equal- 
ity, the Basques become effusive and are un- 
doubtedly sincere. They don't adopt the mood 
for business purposes as does the Norman or 
the NiQois. 

The traditions of the Basques concerning 
their ancestors comport exactly with their re- 
gard for themselves, and their pride of place 
is noticeable to every stranger who goes among 
them. They believe that they were always an 
independent people among surrounding nations 
of slaves, and, since it is doubtful if the Ro- 
mans ever conquered them as they did the other 



376 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

races of Gaul, this may be so. The very sug- 
gestion of this superior ancestry accounts for 
many of their manners and customs. Full to 
overflowing with the realization of their " no- 
blesse collective," they have an utter contempt 
for an individual nobility that borders close 
upon radicalism and republicanism. The great- 
est peer among them is the oldest of the house 
(eteheco-semia) and he, or she, is the only 
individual to whom is paid a voluntary homage. 

Like the children of Abraham, the Basques 
are, away from the seacoast, for the most part 
tenders of flocks and herds, and never does one 
meet a Basque in the mountains or on the high- 
roads but what he finds him carrying a baton 
or a goad-stick, as if he were a Marechal de 
France in embryo. It is their '' compagnon de 
voyage et de fete," and can on occasion, when 
wielded with a sort of Jiu-Jitsu proficiency, 
be a terrible weapon. As many heads must 
have been cracked by the baton of the Basque, 
as by the shillelagh of the Irishman, always 
making allowance for the fact that the Basque 
is less quarrelsome and peppery than Pat. 

There is absolutely no question but that the 
Basques are hospitable when occasion arises, 
and this in spite of their aloofness. In this 
respect they are like the Arabs of the desert. 



The Basques 377 

And also like the Hebrews, the Basques are 
very jealous of their nationality, and have a 
strong- repugnance against alliances and mar- 
riages with strangers. 

The activity and the agility of the Basques 
is proverbial, in fact a proverb has grown out 
of it. " Leger comme un Basque," is a saying 
known all over France. The Basque loves 
games and dances of all sorts, and he " makes 
the fete " with an agility and a passion not 
known of any other people to a more noticeable 
extent. A fete to the Basque, be it local or na- 
tional, is not a thing to be lightly put aside. He 
makes a business of it, and expects every one 
else to do the same. There is no room for on- 
lookers, and if a tourney at pelota — now be- 
come the new sport of Paris — is on, it is not 
the real thing at all unless all have a hand in 
it in turn. There are other pelota tourneys got 
up at Biarritz, Bayonne and Feuntarrabia for 
strangers, but the mountain Basque has con- 
tempt for both the players and the audience. 
What he would think of a sixty or eighty thou- 
sand crowd at a football or a cricket game is 
too horrible for words. 

Pelota Basque has its home in the Basque 
country, both in the French and Spanish prov- 
inces, and the finest players of pelota come from 



378 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

here. Pelota Basque is played in various parts 
of Spain, as well as pelota which is played with 
the three walls and the open hand, and thus the 
two games are found in the same country at the 
same time, though differing to no small extent. 

It is to be regretted that there is not more 
literature connected with the game. The his- 
tory of ball games is always interesting, and 
pelota is without doubt worthy of almost as 
much research as has been expended on the 
history of tennis. 

In Spain pelota is largely played at San 
Sebastian, Bilbao, Madrid, Barcelona. There 
are three walls, and the game is played by four 
players, two on each side. Before the three- 
wall game was ever thought of, Pelota Basque 
was played in the principal cities of the Basque 
country, and it is still played on one wall in such 
cities as St. Jean-de-Luz, Biarritz, Cambo, Dax, 
Mauleon, Bordeaux, and even at Paris, and is 
recognized as the superior variety. 

This was explained over the signatures of 
a group of professional players who introduced 
the game to Paris as follows : — 

" We, the pelotarie playing here, can play 
either on frontones of the Spanish or Basque 
form; but there is no doubt that the latter is 



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The Basques 379 

the better game, and we feel we must state 
that the measures of the court, and the wall, 
and its top curves are the same in the Paris 
fronton as at St. Jean-de-Luz, which is con- 
sidered by all authorities an ideal court. Here 
we play three against three, and all the ' afici- 
onados ' who have witnessed a game of Basque 
pelota are unanimous in saying it is a sport 
of a high grade, although different from the 
three-wall game. 

" We, the undersigned, are the recognized 
champions of pelota Basque. 

'* Eloy, of the Barcelona's Fronton. 

** Melchior, of San Sebastian's Fronton. 

** Velasco, of Biarritz and Bilbao's Fronton. 

** Leon Dihaece, of Paris and Buenos Ay res 
Fronton." 

It is by the word euskualdunac that the 
Basques are known among themselves. Their 
speech has an extraordinary sound, the vowels 
jumping out from between the consonants as a 
nut shell crushes in a casse-noisette. No tongue 
of Europe sounds more strange to foreign ears, 
not even Hungarian. On the other hand a 
Basque will speak French perfectly, without 
the slightest accent, when he feels like it, but 
his Bearnais neighbour makes a horrible mess 



380 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

of it, mixing Parisian French with his chatter- 
ing patois. What a language and what a people 
the Basques are, to be sure! Some day some 
one will study them profoundly and tell us much 
about them that at present we only suspect. 
This much we know, they are allied to no other 
race in Europe. 

Perhaps the Basques were originally Arabs. 
Who knows 1 A young Basque woman who car- 
ries a water- jug on her head, and marches 
along with a subtle undulation of the hips that 
one usually sees only in a desert Arab or a 
Corsican girl, certainly is the peer of any of 
the northern Europeans when it comes to a 
ravishing grace and carriage. 

It is the Pays Basque which is the real 
frontier of France and Spain, and yet it re- 
sembles neiher the country to the north nor 
south, but stands apart, an exotic thing quite 
impossible to place in comparison with any- 
thing else ; and this is equally true of the men 
and women and their manners and customs; 
the country, even, is wild and savage, but gay 
and lively withal. 

One may not speak of two peoples here. It 
is an error, a heresy. On one side, as on the 
other, it is the same race, the same tongue, the 
same peoples — in the Basses-Pyrenees of mod- 



The Basques 381 

ern France as in the Provinces of Guipuzcoa, 
Navarre and Biscaye of modern Spain. The 
only difference is that in France the peasant's 
heret is blue, while in Spain it is red. 

The antiquity of la langue escuara or eshual- 
dunac is beyond question, but it is doubtful if it 
was the speech of Adam and Eve in their ter- 
restrial paradise, as all genuine and patriotic 
Basques have no hesitancy in claiming. 

At a Geographical Congress held in London 
in 1895 a M. L. d'Abartiague claimed relation- 
ship between the Basques of antiquity and the 
aborigines of the North American continent. 
This may be far-fetched or not, but at any rate 
it's not so far-flung as the line of reasoning 
which makes out Adam and Eve as being the 
exclusive ancestors of the Basques, and the rest 
of us all descended from them. 

Curiously enough the Spanish Basques 
change their mother-tongue in favour of Castil- 
ian more readily than those on the other side 
of the Bidassoa do for French. The Spanish 
Basques to-day number perhaps three hundred 
and fifty thousand, though included in fiscal 
returns as Castilians, while in France the 
Basques number not more than one hundred 
and twenty thousand. There are two hundred 



382 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

thousand Basques in Central and South Amer- 
ica, mostly emigrants from France. 

The Basque language is reckoned among the 
tongues apportioned to Gaul by the geographer 
Balbi; the Greco-Latine, the Germanic, the 
Celtic, the Semitic, and the Basque; thus be- 
yond question the Basque tongue is a thing 
apart from any other of the tongues of Europe, 
as indeed are the people. The speech of the 
Basque country is first of all a langue, not a 
corrupted, mixed-up patois. Authorities have 
ascribed it as coming from the Phoenician, 
which, since it was the speech of Cadmus, the 
inventor of the alphabet, was doubtless the par- 
ent of many tongues. The educated Basques 
consider their '' tongue " as one much ad- 
vanced, that is, a veritable tongue, having noth- 
ing in common with the other tongues of 
Europe, ancient or modern, and accordingly to 
be regarded as one of the mother-tongues 
from which others have descended. 

It bears a curious resemblance to Hebrew, in 
that nearly all appellatives express the quali- 
ties and properties of those things to which 
they are applied. From the point of gram- 
matical construction, there is but one declension 
and conjugation, and an abundance of preposi- 
tions which makes the spoken speech concise 



The Basques 383 

and rapid. Basque verbs, moreover, possess a 
'' familiar " singular and a '' respectful " 
singular — if one may so mark the distinction, 
and they furthermore have a slight variation 
according to the age and sex of the person who 
speaks as well as with regard to the one spoken 
to. 

Really, it beats Esperanto for simplicity, and 
the Basque tongue allows one to make words 
of indeterminate length, as does the German. 
It is all things to all men apparently. Ardan- 
zesaroyareniturricoborua, one single word, 
means simply: " the source of the fountain on 
the vineyard-covered mountain." Its simplic- 
ity may be readily understood from the follow- 
ing application. The Basque " of Bayonne *' 
is Bayona; " from Bayonne," Bayonaco; that 
of Bayonne," Bayonacoa. 

The ancient and prolific Basque tongue 
possesses a literature, but for all that, there has 
never yet been discovered one sole public con- 
tract, charter or law written in the language. 
It was never the official speech of any portion 
of the country, nor of the palace, nor was it 
employed in the courts. The laws or fueros 
were written arbitrarily in Latin, Spanish, 
French and Bearnais, but never in Basque. 

The costume of the Basque peasant is more 



384 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

coquettish and more elegant than that of any- 
other of the races of the Midi, and in some re- 
spects is almost as theatrical as that of the 
Breton. All over Europe the characteristic 
costumes are changing, and where they are 
kept very much to the fore, as in Switzerland, 
Tyrol and in parts of Brittany, it is often for 
business purposes, just as the yodlers of the 
Alps mostly yodel for business purposes. 

The Basque sticks to his costume, a blending 
of Spanish and something unknown. He, or 
she, in the Basque provinces knows or cares 
little as to what may be the latest style at Paris, 
and bowler hats and jupes tailleurs have not 
yet arrived in the Basque countryside. One 
has to go into Biarritz or Pau and look for 
them on strangers. 

For the Basque a beret bleu (or red), a short 
red jacket, white vest, and white or black velvet 
corduroy breeches are en regie, besides which 
there are usually white stockings, held at the 
knees by a more or less fanciful garter. On his 
feet are a rough hob-nailed shoe, or the very 
reverse, a sort of a moccasin made of corded 
flax. A silk handkerchief encircles the neck, as 
with most southern races, and hangs down over 
the shoulders in what the wearer thinks is an 
engaging manner. On the days of the great 



The Basques 385 

fetes there is something more gorgeous still, a 
sort of a draped cloak, often parti-coloured, 
primarily the possession of married men, but 
affected by the young when they try to be 
'* sporty." 

The tambour de Basque, or drum, is a poor 
one-sided affair, all top and no bottom; virtu- 
ally it is a tambourine, and not a drum at all. 
One sees it all over the Basque country, and it 
is as often played on with the closed fists as 
with a drumstick. 

Like most of the old provincials of France, 
the Basques have numerous folk-songs and 
legends in verse. Most frequently they are in 
praise of women, and the Basque women de- 
serve the best that can be said of them. The 
following as a sample, done into French, and 
no one can say the sentiment is not a good deal 
more healthy than that of Isaac Watts 's 
*' hymns." 

" Peu de femmes bonnes sont bonnes danseuses, 

Bonne dansense, mauvaise fileuse ; 
Mauvaise fileuse, bonne buveuse, 

Des femmes semblables 
Sont bonnes a traiter a coups de baton." 

In the Basque country, as in Brittany, the 
clergy have a great influence over the daily 



386 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

life of the people. The Basques are not as 
fanatically devout as the Bretons, but never- 
theless they look to the cure to explain away 
many things that they do not understand them- 
selves ; and let it be said the Basque cure does 
his duty as a leader of opinion for the good of 
one and all, much better than does the country 
squire in England who occupies a somewhat 
analagous position. 

It is through the church that the Euskarian 
population of the Basses-Pyrenees have one of 
their strongest ties with traditional antiquity. 
The cures and the communicants of his parish 
are usually of one race. There is a real com- 
munity of ideas. 

As for the education of the new generation 
of Basques, it is keeping pace with that of the 
other inhabitants of France, though in times 
past even rudimentary education was far be- 
hind, and from the peasant class of only a gen- 
eration or so ago, out of four thousand drawn 
for service in the army, nearly three hundred 
were destitute of the knowledge of how to read 
and write. In ten years, however, this per- 
centage has been reduced one half. 

The emigration of the Basques has ever been 
a serious thing for the prosperity of the region. 
Thirteen hundred emigrated from the ' ' Basque 



The Basques 387 

Frangaise " (for South and Central America) 
and fifteen hundred from the '' Basque Espa- 
gnole." In figures this emigration has been 
considerably reduced of late, but the average 
per year for the last fifty years has been (from 
the Basse-Pyrenees Departement alone) some- 
thing like seventeen hundred. 

The real, simon-pure Basque is seen at his 
best at Saint Jean-Pied-de-Port, the ancient 
capital of French Navarre. '* Urtun hiriti 
urrumoffagariti," say the inhabitants: " Far 
from the city, far from health. ' ' This isn 't ac- 
cording to the doctors, but let that pass. 

To know the best and most typical parts of 
the Basque country, one should make the jour- 
ney from Saint Jean-Pied-de-Port to Mauleon 
and Tardets. Here things are as little changed 
from mediaevalism as one will find in modern 
France. One passes from the valley of the 
Nive into the valley of the Bidouze. There are 
no railways and one must go by road. The 
road is excellent moreover, though the distance 
is not great. Here is where the automobilist 
scores, but if one wants to take a still further 
step back into the past he may make the forty 
kilometres by diligence. This is a real treat 
too, not at all to be despised as a means of 
travel, but one must hurry up or the three franc 



388 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

diligence will be supplanted by a '' light rail- 
way," and then where will mediaevalism come 
in. All the same, if you've got a feverish auto- 
mobile panting outside St. Jean's city gate, 
jump in. 

There are numerous little villages en route 
which will not detain one except for their 
quaintness. One passes innumerable oxen, all 
swathed in swaddling clothes to keep off the 
flies and plodding slowly but surely along over 
their work. A train of Spanish mules or 
smaller donkeys pulling a long wagon of wood 
or wool is another common sight; or a man or 
a woman, or both, on the back of a little donkey 
will be no novelty either. This travel off the 
beaten track, if there is not much of note to 
stop one, is delightful, and here one gets it at 
its best. 

Stop anywhere along the road at some inn 
of little pretence and you will fare well for your 
dejeuner. It will be very homely, this little 
Basque inn, but strangers will do very well 
for their simple wants. All one does is to ask 
** Avez-vous des oeufsl Avez-vous du jambon? 
Du vin, je vous prie! " and the smiling rosy- 
cheeked 'patronne, whose name is Jeanne, 
Jeannette, Jeanneton, Jeannot or Margot — 
one or the other it's bound to be — does the rest 



The Basques 389 

with a cackling " Ha ! he! Eh ben! eh ben I ** 
And you will think you never ate such excellent 
ham and eggs in your life as this Bayonne ham 
and the eggs from Basque chickens — and the 
wine and the home-made bread. It's all very 
simple, but an Escoffier could not do it bet- 
ter. 

The peasant's work in the fields in the Basque 
country may not be on the most approved 
lines, and you can't grow every sort of a crop 
here in this rusty red soil, but there is a vast 
activity and an abundance of return for the 
hard workers, and all the Basques are that. 
The plough is as primitive as that with which 
the Egyptian fellah turns up the alluvial soil 
of the Nile, but the Basque makes good head- 
way nevertheless, and can turn as straight a 
furrow, up the side of a hill or down, as most 
of his brothers can on the level. 

In the church at Bunus is a special door re- 
served in times past for the descendants of the 
Arabs who had adopted Christianity, 

Here in the Basque country you may see the 
peasants on a fete day dance the fandango 
with all the ardour and the fervour of the Anda- 
lusians themselves. Besides the fandango, 
there is the " saute basque/' a sort of a hop- 
skip-and-a-jump which they think is dancing, 



390 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

but which isn't the thing at all, unless a grass- 
hopper can be said to dance. 

'' Le Chevalet " is another Basque dance 
whose very name explains itself ; and then there 
is the " Tcherero," a minuet-sort of a dance, 
wholly by men, and very graceful and pictur- 
esque it is, not at all boisterous. 

The peasants play the pastoral here as they 
do in Languedoc and Provence, with good ge- 
niuses and evil geniuses, and all the machinery 
that Isaac Watts put into his hymns for little 
children. Here the grown men and women take 
them quite as seriously as did the children of 
our nursery days. 

In the Basses-Pyrenees, besides the Basques, 
is distinguishable another race of dark-skinned, 
under-sized little men, almost of the Japanese 
type, except that their features are more regu- 
lar and delicate. They are descendants of the 
Saracen hordes which overran most of southern 
Gaul, and here and there found a foothold and 
left a race of descendants to tell the story. The 
Saracens of the Basque country were not war- 
like invaders, but peaceful ones who here took 
root, and to-day are known as Agotacs-Cas- 
carotacs. It is not difficult to distinguish traces 
of African blood among them, just the least 
suspicion, and they have certain religious rites 



The Basques 391 

and customs — seemingly pagan — which have 
nothing in common with either the Basques or 
the French. They are commonly considered as 
pariahs by other dwellers roundabout, but they 
have a certain individuality which would seem 
to preclude this. They are more like the '' holy 
men " of India, than they are like mere alms 
beggars, and they have been known to occupy 
themselves more or less rudely with rough 
labour and agricultural pursuits. They have 
their own places in the churches, those who 
have not actually died off, for their numbers 
are growing less from day to day. It can be 
said, however, that — save the cagots and 
cretins — they are the least desirable and most 
unlikable people to be found in France to-day. 
They are not loathsome, like lepers or cretins 
or goitreux, but they are shunned by all man- 
kind, and for the most part remain well hidden 
in obscure corners and culs-de-sac of the val- 
leys away from the highroads. 

The Spanish gypsies are numerous here in 
the Basque country, as might be expected. They 
do not differ greatly from the accepted gypsy 
tjTDC, but their marriage customs are curious. 
As a local authority on gypsy lore has put it: 
*' an old pot serves as a cure and notary — 
u bieilh toupi qu'ous sert de cure de noutari." 



392 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

The marriageable couple, their parents and 
their friends, assemble in a wood, without 
priest or lawyer, or any ceremony which re- 
sembles an official or religious act. An earthen- 
ware pot is thrown in the air and the broken 
pieces, as it tumbles to the ground, are counted. 
The number of pieces indicate the duration of 
the partnership in years, each fragment count- 
ing for a year. Simple, isn't itl 



CHAPTER XXVI 

SAINT - JEAN - PIED -DE - PORT AND THE COL DE 
EONgEVAUX 

Saint - Jean - Pied - de - Port, the ancient 
capital of Basse-Navarre, is the gateway to one 
of the seven passes of the Pyrenees. To-day 
it is as quaint and unworldly as it was when 
capital of the province. Its aspect is truly 
venerable, and this in spite of the fact that it 
is the chief town of a canton, and transacts all 
the small business of the small officialdom of 
many square leagues of country within its 
walls. 

There is no apparent approach to Saint-Jean- 
Pied-de-Port, as one comes up the lower valley 
of the Nive ; it all opens out as suddenly as if 
a curtain were withdrawn ; everything enlarges 
and takes on colouring and animation. 

The walled and bastioned little capital of 
other days was one of the cles of France in 
feudal times, and it lives well up to its tradi- 
tions. Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port is a little town, 
red and rosy, as a Frenchman — certainly a 

393 



394 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

poet, or an artist — described it. There is no 
doubt but that it is a wonder of picturesque- 
ness, and its old walls and its great arched 
gateway tell a story of mediaevalism which one 
does not have to go to a picture fairy book to 
have explained. All is rosy, the complexions 
of the young Basque girls, their costumes, the 
brick and stone houses and gates, and the old 
bridge across the Nive; all is the colour of 
polished copper, some things paler and some 
deeper in tone, but all rosy red. There's no 
doubt about that ! 

Along the river bank the houses plunge di- 
rectly into the water without so much as a skirt 
of shore-line. Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port, its an- 
cient ramparts and its river, is a combination 
of Bruges and Venice. Its citadelle coiffe tells 
of things that are militant, and its fifteenth- 
century church of those that are spiritual. Be- 
tween the two comes much history of the days 
when the little bourg was the weight in the bal- 
ance between French and Spanish Navarre. 

The streets are calm, but brilliant with all 
the rare colourings of the artist's palette, not 
the least of these notes of colour being the milk 
jugs one sees everywhere hung out, strongly 
banded with great circles of burnished copper, 
and ornamented with a device of the royal 




The Quaint Streets of Saint-J ean-Pied-dc-Porf 



Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port 395 

crown, the fleur-de-lis, the initial H and the 
following inscription: " a le grand homme des 
pays bearnais et basques." No one seems to 
know the exact significance of this milk jug 
s}anbolism, but the jugs themselves would make 
good souvenirs to carry away. All around is 
a wonderful wooded growth, fig-trees, laurels 
and all the semi-tropical flora usually associ- 
ated with the Mediterranean countries, includ- 
ing the chdtaigniers, whose i^roduct, the chest- 
nut, is becoming more and more appreciated as 
an article of food. 

Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port was, and is, the 
guardian of one of the most facile means of 
communication between France and Spain, the 
Route de Pamplona via Ron§evaux; facile be- 
cause it has recently been rendered suitable for 
carriage traffic, whereas, save the coast routes 
on the east and west, no other is practicable. 

In 1523 the great tower and fortifications of 
Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port were razed by order 
of the king of Navarre. The decree, dated and 
signed from " notre chateau de Pan," read in 
part thus: — 

" Know you that the demolition of the walls 
of the city of Saint-J ean-Pied-de-Port is not 
made for any case of crime or felony or sus- 
picion against the itihabitants . . . and that ive 



396 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

consider said inhabitants still as good, faithful 
vassals and loyal subjects." 

The existing monuments of Saint-Jean-Pied- 
de-Port are many, though no royal residences 
are left to remind one of the days when kings 
and queens tarried within its walls. Instead 
one must be content with the knowledge that 
the city grew up from a Roman bourg which in 
the ninth century was replaced with the prede- 
cessor of the later capital. Its name, even in 
this early day, was Saint- Jean-le-Vieux, and it 
was not until the eleventh or twelfth centuries 
that the present city took form, founded doubt- 
less by the Garcias, who were then kings of all 
Navarre. Saint-Jean belonged to Spain, as did 
all the province on the northern slope of the 
Pyrenees, until the treaty of 1659, and the cap- 
ital of the kingdom was Pamplona. 

Under the three reigns preceding the French 
Revolution the city was the capital of French 
Navarre, but the French kings, some time be- 
fore, as we have seen, deserted it for more 
sumptuous and roomy quarters at Pau, which 
became the capital of Beam and Navarre. 

The chief architectural characteristics, an 
entrancing melange of French and Spanish, 
are the remaining ramparts and their ogive- 
arched gates, the Vieux Pont and its fortified 



Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port 397 

gateway, and the fifteenth and sixteenth cen- 
tury church. The local fete (August fifteenth- 
eighteenth) is typical of the life of the Basques 
of the region, and reminiscent, in its '' cha- 
rades," ** bals champetres, " " parties de pe- 
lote," " mascarades," and " danses allego- 
riques " of the traditions of the past. 

Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port lies in the valley of 
the Nive, and St. £]tienne-de-Baigorry, just over 
the crest of the mountains, fifteen kilometres 
away, in the Val de Baigorry, is the chief 
town of a commune more largely peopled than 
that presided over by Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port. 
Really the town is but a succession of hamlets 
or quarters, but it is interesting because of its 
church, with its great nave reserved exclusively 
for women, even to-day — as was the ancient 
Basque custom — and the Chateau d'Echaux 
sitting above the town. 

The chateau was the property of the ancient 
Vicomtes of Baigorry, and is a genuine medi- 
aeval structure, with massive flanking towers 
and a surrounding park. 

One of the Vicomtes de Baigorry, Bertrand 
d'Echaux, was also bishop of Bayonne, and 
afterwards almoner to Louis XIII. That mon- 
arch proposed to Pope Urban VIII to make 



398 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

his almoner a cardinal, but death overtook him 
first. 

The nephew of this Bertrand d'Echaux, Jean 
d'Olce, was also a bishop of Bayonne, and it 
was to him, in the church of St. Jean de Luz, 
fell the honour of giving the nuptial benediction 
to Louis XIV and the Infanta Marie-Therese 
upon their marriage. 

The Chateau de Baigorry of the Echaux be- 
longed later to the Comte Harispe, one of the 
architects of the military glory of France. He 
first engaged in warfare as a simple volunteer, 
but died senateur, comte, and marechal of 
France. 

There is a first class legend connected with 
the daughter of the chatelain of D'Echaux. A 
certain warrior, baron of the neighbouring cha- 
teau of Lasse, became enamoured of the daugh- 
ter of the Seigneur d'Echaux, Vicomte de Bai- 
gorry, and in spite of the reputation of the 
suitor of being cruel and ungallant the vicomte 
would not willingly refuse the hand of his 
daughter to so valiant a warrior, so the young 
girl — though it was against her own wish — 
became la Baronne de Lasse. 

The marriage bell echoed true for a com- 
paratively long period; it was said that the 
soft character of the lady had tempered the 



Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port 399 

despotism of her husband. One day a young 
follower of Thibaut, Comte de Champagne, re- 
turning from Pamplona in Spain, knocked at 
the door of the Chateau de Lasse and demanded 
hospitality, as was his chevalier's right. The 
young knight and Madame la Baronne fell in 
love at first sight, but not without exciting the 
suspicions of the baron, who, by a subterfuge, 
caught the loving pair in their guilt. He threw 
himself upon the young gallant, pierced his 
heart with a dagger-thrust, cut him into pieces, 
and threw them into the moat outside the castle 
walls. 

An improvised court of justice was held in 
the gi'eat hall of the castle, and the vassals, 
fearing the wrath of their overlord, condemned 
the unhappy woman to death, by being interred 
in a dungeon cave and allowed to starve. 

When the Vicomte de Baigorry heard of this, 
he marched forthwith against his hard-hearted 
son-in-law, and after a long siege took the cha- 
teau. Just previously the baron committed 
suicide, anticipating the death that would have 
awaited him. This is tragedy as played in 
mediaeval times. 

Between Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port and Saint- 
Etienne-de-Baigorry, just by the side of the 
road, is the ruined chateau of Farges, a famous 



400 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

establishment in the days of the first Napo- 
leon's empire, though a hot-bed of political in- 
trigue. Its architectural charms are not many 
or great, the garden is neglected, and the gates 
are off their hinges. The whole resembles 
those Scotch manors now crumbling into ruin, 
of which Sir Walter has given so many de- 
scriptions. At Ascarat, too, is a house bear- 
ing a sculpture of a cross, a mitre, and two 
mallets interlaced on its fagade, with the date 
1292. It is locally called " La Maison Anci- 
enne," but the present occupant has given it 
frequent coats of whitewash and repaired 
things here and there until it looks like quite 
a modern structure. 

Above Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port, on the road 
to Arneguy, is the little hamlet of Lasse, with 
a church edifice of no account, but with a ruined 
chateau donjon that possesses a historic, legend- 
ary past. It recalls the name of the baron who 
had that little affair with the daughter of the 
Vicomte de Baigorry. 

In the heart of the Pyrenees, twenty kilo- 
metres above Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port, is Val 
Carlos and the Col de Rongevaux, where fell 
Roland and Archbishop Turpin in that bloody 
rout of Charlemagne. Blood flowed in rivers. 
Literature more than history, though the event 



Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port 401 

was epoch-making in the latter sense, has made 
the story famous. The French call it a drame 
militaire, and this, as well as anything, gives 
a suggestion of its spectacular features all so 
fully set forth in a cycle of chivalrous legends 
in the famous Song of Roland. 

The Alps divide their warlike glories with 
Napoleon and Hannibal, but the Pyrenees will 
ever have Charlemagne for their deity, because 
of this affair at Rongevaux. Charlemagne dom- 
inated everything with his '' host of Christen- 
dom," and the people on the Pyrenees say to- 
day: '^ There are three great noises — that of 
the torrent, that of the wind in the pines, and 
that of the army of Charlemagne." He did 
what all wise commanders should do; he held 
both sides of his defensive frontier. 

« When Charlemagne had given his anger room, 
And broken Saragossa beneath his doom, 
And bound the valley of Ebro under a bond, 
And into Christendom christened Bramimond." 

All who recall the celebrated retreat of Char- 
lemagne and the shattering of his army, and the 
Paladin Roland, by the rocks rolled down upon 
them by the Basques will have vivid emotions 
as they stand here above the magnificent gorge 



402 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

of Val Carlos and contemplate one of the cele- 
brated battle-fields of history. 

The abbey of EonQevaux, a celebrated and 
monumental convent, has been famous long 
years in history. The royale et insigne col- 
legiate, as it was known, was one of the most 
celebrated sanctuaries in Christendom, and 
takes its place immediately after the shrines 
of Jerusalem, Rome, and St. Jacques de Com- 
postelle, under the immediate protection of the 
Holy See, and under the direct patronage of the 
king of Spain, who nominates the prior. This 
dignitary and six canons are all that exist to- 
day of the ancient military order of Rongevaux, 
called by the Spanish RouQevalles, and by the 
Basques Orhia. 

There's not much else at Rongevaux save the 
monastery and its classic Grothic architectural 
splendours, a few squalid houses, and an inn 
where one may see as typical a Spanish kitchen 
as can be found in the depths of the Iberian 
peninsula. Here are all the picturesque Span- 
ish accessories that one reads of in books and 
sees in pictures, soldiers playing guitars, and 
muleteers dancing the fandango, with, perhaps, 
a Carmencita or a Mercedes looking on or even 
dancing herself. 

Pamplona in Spain, the old kingly capital 



Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port 403 

of Navarre, is eighty kilometres distant. One 
leaves Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port by diligence at 
eleven in the morning, takes dejeuner at Val 
Carlos, and at two in the afternoon takes the 
Spanish diligence and sleeps at Burgette, leav- 
ing again at four in the morning and arriving 
at Pamplona at eight. 

This is a classic excursion and ought to be 
made by all who visit the Pyrenees. Val Carlos 
is the Spanish customs station, and soon after 
one passes through the magnificent rocky De- 
file de Val Carlos and finally over the crest of 
the Pyrenees by either the Port d'Ibaneta or 
the Col de Rongevaux, at a height of one thou- 
sand and fifty-seven metres. 

The route from Rongevaux to Pamplona is 
equally as good on Spanish soil as it was on 
French — an agreeable surprise to those who 
have thought the good roads' movement had 
not " arrived " in Spain. 

The diligence may not be an ideally comfort- 
able means of travel, but at least it's a romantic 
one, and has some advantages over driving 
from Saint Jean in your own, or a hired, con- 
veyance, as an expostulating Frenchman we 
met had done. He freed the frontier all right 
enough, but within a few kilometres was ar- 
rested by a roving Spanish officer who turned 



404 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

him back to the ofl&cial-looking building — 
which he had no right to pass without stop- 
ping anyway — labelled ' ' Aduana Nacional ' ' 
in staring letters, that any passer-by might 
read without straining his eyes. 

" Surely he would never have driven by in 
this manner," said the dutiful functionary, 
" unless he was intending to sell the horse and 
carriage and all that therein was, without ac- 
quitting the lawful rights which would enable a 
royal government to present a decent fiscal bal- 
ance sheet." 

Pamplona is the end of our itinerary, and 
was the capital of Spanish Navarre. It's not 
at all a bad sort of a place, and while it doesn 't 
look French in the least, it is no more primitive 
than many a French city or town of its pre- 
tentions. It has a population of thirty thou- 
sand, is the seat of a bishop, has a fine old 
cathedral, a bull ring — which is a sight to see 
on the fete day of San Sebastian (January 
twentieth) — and a hotel called La Perla which 
by its very name is a thing of quality. 



CHAPTER XXVII 

THE VALLEY OP THE NIVE 

There is no more gracious little river valley 
in all France than that of the Nive, as it flows 
from fabled Rongevaux by Saint-Jean-Pied- 
de-Port, Bidarray and Cambo, to the Gulf of 
Gascony, down through the fertile Pyrenean 
slopes. Ronsard sang of the Loir at Vendome 
and his rhymes have become classic; but much 
of the phrasing might apply here. All about 
is a profound verdure, a majesty, and a mag- 
nificence of colour which will ravish the heart 
of an artist, be he realist or impressionist. 
From the very first, the Nive flows between 
banks wide and sinuous, and in its lower 
reaches, between Cambo and the sea, takes on 
an amplitude that many longer and more pre- 
tentious streams lack utterly. By a rock-cut 
way, the Nive passes from French Navarre 
into the Pays de Labourd, an ancient fief of 
feudal times, between Cambo and the Pas de 
Roland. 

The legend which has perpetuated the death 

406 



406 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

of Roland and so many of the rear-gnard of 
Charlemagne's army gives an extraordinary 
interest to this otherwise striking region. Here 
the Nive narrows its banks and tumbles itself 
about in a veritable fury of foam, and whether 
the sword stroke of the Paladin Roland made 
the passage possible, as it did in the famous 
" Breche," or not has little to do with one of 
the strikingly sentimental episodes of legend- 
ary history. If it took place anywhere likely 
enough it happened here also. 

Between the Pas de Roland and Saint-Jean- 
Pied-de-Port one passes Bidarray and a curi- 
ous donkey-back bridge, and the famous Bassin 
de Bidarray, famous only because it is a cavern 
underground, for it does not differ greatly in 
appearance from others of its family. Above 
Bidarray is the superb cone of Mondarrain, 
crowned with the ruins of a feudal castle. 

The following legend of a dragon who once 
lived in a cavern on the banks of the Nive is 
worthy of preserving in print; at any rate it 
sounds plausible, as told the writer by an old 
dealer in berets and sabots. He had an eye for 
the picturesque, though, and if his facts are 
correct he would make a very good historian. 

A young Bayonnais went out one day to at- 
tack this fabled monster whom no one yet had 



The Valley of the Nive 407 

been able to kill. By name he was Gaston 
Armaud de Belzunc, and his father was gov- 
ernor of Bayonne in 1372. 

After a day and a half of journeying, the 
young Tartarin of other days came upon his 
quarry. The beast, furious, jumped upon the 
cavalier and threw him to the ground, but his 
lance pierced the scaly neck and so weakened 
the monster that man and beast grappled to- 
gether. The two died, and Gaston's compan- 
ions, who had ungallantly fled precipitately at 
the first encounter, found them later laced in 
each other's embrace. 

To perpetuate the memory of this act of 
bravery, the king of Navarre granted the fam- 
ily De Belzunc the privilege of adding a dragon 
to its arms. Up to the Revolution there ex- 
isted a fund in behalf of the clergy of a Ba- 
yonne church to pray for the repose of the soul 
of this gallant young knight of the Middle Ages. 

High above the banks of the upper reaches 
of the Nive are the grim ruins of the Chateau 
de Laustan. Practically it was, in its palmy 
days, a fortress-chateau. It was built by the 
Seigneur de Laustan, who possessed great priv- 
ileges in the neighbourhood, to turn the tide 
of aggression of his jealous neighbours, and of 
the Spaniards. It was constructed of a sort 



408 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

of red sandstone, with walls of great thickness, 
as evidences show to-day, and must have been 
a very successful feudal habitation of its class. 
The family De Laustan was one of the most 
celebrated in Basse-Navarre. It gave three 
archbishops to Spain, and its archives are now 
kept in the royal library at Madrid. 

Cambo, in the mid-valley of the Nive, is as 
delightful a spot of its class as is marked on 
any map, far more so than many pretentious 
resorts where bridge, baccarat and the bump- 
tious pretence of its habitues are the chief char- 
acteristics. 

Cambo is simple, but pleasant, and besides 
its quiet, peaceful delights it has two historical 
institutions which are as un-French as they are 
really and truly Basque. First : its remarkable 
church, with its golden retable and its galleries 
surrounding the nave, is something distinctively 
local, as is also its churchyard. The other fea- 
ture is the court or fronton where is played the 
jeu de paume, or, to give it its Basque nomen- 
clature, pelota. Here meet from time to time, 
all through the year, the most famous players 
of the French Basque country and of Guipuz- 
coa, the chief Spanish centre, across the border. 

This game of pelota is the passion of the 
Basques, but as the habitant says, " the game 



The Valley of the Nive 409 

plays out the player, and in four or five years 

his suppleness disappears, his muscles become iH"t»¥t 

hardened, and he is superannuated." 

Still one cannot get away from the fact that 
Cambo's present-day vogue is wholly due to the 
coming of Edmond Rostand. It was famous 
before, among a select few, but the craze is on, 
and the land-boomer and the resort-exploiter 
have already marked its acres for their own. 

Rostand's country home *' Arnaga " is some- 
thing like a palace of an Arabian Nights tale. 
The walls of the apartments, whose windows 
look out over the crests of the Pyrenees, are 
covered with paintings by some of the most 
celebrated French artists. One room has a dec- 
orated frieze taken from the ever-delightful 
tales immortalized by Andersen and the Grimm 
brothers, and the gem of this poet's dwelling 
is Madame Rostand's boudoir. Familiar sto- 
ries of ' ' Cinderella ' ' and the * ' Beauty and the 
Beast " are told again, with a wealth of colour 
and fantasy, by that whimsical artist Jean 
Weber. 

This artistic retreat is a happy combination 
of Byzantine palace and Basque chalet. Here 
Rostand lives part of the year, with his wife 
and son, in a retirement only broken to receive 
a friend, who is supposed never to speak of 



410 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

the strenuous life. To escape from the con- 
tinual excitement of city life and the feverish 
fashionable resorts, and also to be able to de- 
vote himself entirely to work, the creator of 
" Cyrano " fled to this spot eight years ago. 
Arnaga is not constructed along the conven- 
tional lines of the French chateau, but looks 
rather like a Moorish palace as it stands on a 
high hill, surrounded by parks and terraces, 
and the wonderful Basque landscape. On one 
side the castle or palace, or chateau, or what- 
ever you choose to call it, overlooks a verdant 
plain sprinkled with semi-tropical blossoms 
and watered by the winding stream of the Nive. 
On the other rise the majestic Pyrenees, which, 
in the glory of the southern sunset, flush to a 
deep crimson and then pale to a sombre purple. 

Surely it is an ideal spot and will be till the 
madding crowd comes and sets this ideal lit- 
terateurs' and artists' retreat in an uproar, as 
it did iStretat and St. Raphael in the days of 
Alphonse Karr. 

Eostand's earnings as a dramatist might not 
suffice to keep up such a pretentious establish- 
ment, but since he is married to the daughter 
of a Paris banker the thing seems simpler. 

" The fame of Cambo is only just coming to 
be widespread. This is due to the fact that 



The Valley of the Nive 411 

the great poet and playwright whose fame rests 
upon having invented a papier-mache nose for 
his chief creation has made it so." This was 
the rather unkindly criticism of a brother pro- 
fessional (a French playwright) jealous, pre- 
sumably, of Rostand's fame, and must not be 
taken seriously, 

Rostand's house is one of the sights of 
Cambo, but as a Frenchman wrote: '^ M. Ros- 
tand n'est pas toujours a sa fenetre." Still the 
house is there and those who would worship at 
the shrine from without may do so. 

To get in and out of Cambo one passes over 
a tiny bridge, so narrow that one conveyance 
must wait while another crosses. As the same 
observant Frenchman said: '' No wonder M. 
Rostand does not quit Cambo if he has to cross 
a bridge like this! " Automobiles especially 
have an annoying time of it, and the new ' ' au- 
tomobile come quadruple '' as it whistles out the 
famous air: '' Je suis le pdtre des montagnes ," 
will not turn a Basque peasant and his donkey 
aside once the latter has set his forefoot on 
the curious old bridge. 

At Cambo the bathing establishment is in a 
half-hidden, tree-gn'own corner on the banks of 
the transparent Nive. 

Cambo, in spite of having ** arrived " to a 



412 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

position of affluence and popularity, is but a 
commune of the canton of Espelette, whose 
market-town itself has but a population of fif- 
teen hundred souls, though it draws half as 
many again to its bosom each bi-weekly market 
day, mostly Basques from Spain. Espelette is 
full of curious old Basque houses, and its man- 
ners and customs are quaint and queer; in 
short it is most interesting, though if you stop 
for lunch at any one of its four or five little inns 
you will most likely want to get back to Cambo 
by diligence for the night. Espelette 's chief 
industry is tanning leather and making those 
curious Basque shoes called espadrilles. 

Above Cambo, a dozen kilometres, are the 
Chateaux Teillery and Itxassou. Itxassou pos- 
sesses a richly endowed church, with an entire 
silver-gilt altar, the gift of a '' Basque-Ameri- 
cain " of the eighteenth century, Pedro d'Eche- 
garay. 



CHAPTEE XXVIII 



./'^A, 



BAYONNE : ITS PORT AND ITS WALLS 






^/y)y:::^/yj 







OP 



The foundation of Bayonne is lost in the 
obscurity of ages, but it was the capital of the 
Basque country. 

Three distinct quartiers are formed by the 
flowing waters of the Nive and the Adour, com- 
munication being by a series of exceedingly 
picturesque, if not exactly serviceable, bridges. 

413 



414 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

The bridges of Bayonne are famous in the eyes 
of artists, and lovers of damp, moss-grown and 
weathered masonry, but an engineer of this age 
of steel would consider them inefficient abomi- 
nations, and not at all suited to a great port 
and sous-prefecture such as Bayonne. 

One of the finest works of Vauban, the for- 
tress builder, was the defences of Bayonne. The 
walls and ramparts were exceedingly efficacious 
in times past (though to-day they look flimsy 
enough), and crowning all, was a superb for- 
tress at the juncture of the two rivers which 
come together here, flowing from the fastnesses 
of the Pyrenees to the sea. 

The Alices Marines at Bayonne, a sort of 
tree-covered jetty-promenade, are a unique fea- 
ture in civic embellishment. The water-gate 
at Bordeaux is fine, and so is the Thames Em- 
bankment in London, and the Battery in New 
York, but those Alices at Bayonne lead them 
all. 

The Adour, coursing its way to the sea down 
through Bayonne, was fickle enough one day to 
leave its bed, and force an outlet three leagues 
or more away, threatening disaster to Ba- 
yonne 's port. The citizens rose in might and 
took counsel, and decided that something must 
be done or they would die of sheer ennui, if not 




A Gateicav of Bayonne 



Bayonne 415 

of poverty. There came to the rescue one Louis 
de Foix, the same who had been the architect 
of Spain's Escurial, and in 1579 he harnessed 
the water's flow and returned it to its ancient 
bed. 

Bayonne glories in the fact that she has 
never submitted to a foreign yoke, and when 
taken from the English, who had usurped it as 
a Plantagenet birthright, by Charles VII, in the 
fifteenth century, the people of Bayonne rec- 
ognized that they had come to their own again 
through the efforts of their fellow Basques. 
The city's device " Nunquam Polluta " is dis- 
tinctly appropriate. 

It was to Bayonne that Frangois Premier 
came to meet his court, after his days of im- 
prisonment at Madrid, as the hostage of his old 
enemy Charles V. He was confined only in the 
luxuriously appointed palace at Madrid, but, 
as he himself said, ' * the cage was none the less 
a cage for being gilded." 

Here at Bayonne awaited Francois' mother, 
his sister Marguerite, and a gay court of fol- 
lowers, not forgetting '' a brilliant parterre of 
young beauties assembled in their train," as 
Du Bellay puts it. 

Frangois' adoration for *' brilliant par- 
terres " of young ladies was ever one of his 



416 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

failings, and the master of ceremonies of the 
temporary court of Bayonne thought enough 
of his position to get together an entrancing 
bevy, the most beautiful among them all being 
the famous Anne de Pisseleu, she who was 
afterwards to become the Duchesse d'Etampes. 
Diane de Poitiers was there too, having come 
to Bayonne as lady in waiting to the regent, 
but it was Anne de Pisseleu who won Frangois' 
favour of the moment, and he even allowed her 
to publicly refer to the insistent Diane as " an 
old hag, ' ' and declare that she herself was born 
on Diane's wedding day. This was after he 
had put aside Diane. 

Vicomte d'Orth was governor of Bayonne on 
that dread Bartholomew's night when the tocsin 
rang out all over the French domain. He wrote 
to Charles IX as follows, showing the fidelity 
and steadfastness of the people of these parts, 
when in more frigid climes they lost their heads 
in an uncontrollable fury : 

" I have communicated the letter of your 
Majesty to the garrison, and to the inhabitants 
of the city; I have found only brave soldiers 
and good citizens and not a single murderer." 

Bayonne to-day is frankly commercial; its 
docks and wharves are possessed of a consid- 
erable deep-sea traffic; and one sees three- 



Bayonne 417 

masters from the Banks of Newfoundland, and 
cargo-boats from Senegal, side by side at its 
quays. It is, too, the distributing depot for 
the whole Basque country, the chief market 
where the peasant goes to buy Seth Thomas 
clocks and Smith and Wesson revolvers, each 
made in Belgium most likely; in England and 
America the cry is '' made in Germany; " in 
France, it's " made in Belgium." 

All of the Basque country, and a part of 
Beam, depend on Bayonne for certain supplies ; 
even Biarritz and Saint-Jean-de-Luz are but its 
satellites. 

Walckenaer's '' Geographic des Gauls " says 
the evolution of the name Bayonne was from 
the Basque Lapurdam, " city of thieves," but 
nothing to-day about her warm welcome for 
strangers justifies this, so it were best forgot. 
Bayonne in the old days — and to some extent 
to-day — spoke intermittently Gascon, Fran- 
gais, Bearnais and Spanish, and it is this no- 
table blend of peoples and tongues that makes 
it so charming. 

The Qimrtier Landais was the mother city of 
Bayonne, the oldest portion out of which the 
other faubourgs grew. Within the old walls, 
and in the narrow streets, all is medifEval even 
now, but in the newer quarters the straight, 



418 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

rectangular lines of streets and sidewalks are, 
as the French call them, a V Americaine. 

The Pont Mayou at Bayonne is the liveliest, 
gayest spot in all the Basque country. It is the 
virtual centre of this ancient capital. 

Bayonne 's cathedral is lovely enough when 
viewed from afar, particularly the ensemble of 
its spires with the roof-tops of the town — a 
sort of reminiscence of Nuremberg — and this 
in spite of the fact that Taine in his description 
of it called it ugly. 

In the olden times, the city had an important 
Jewish quarter, whose inhabitants were an 
overflow of those expelled from Spain and Por- 
tugal. This little city of the Landes became 
a miniature Frankfort, and had three syna- 
gogues where the rabbis held services in the 
Spanish tongue. The phenomenon has disap- 
peared, by a process of evolution and infusion, 
and one no more remarks the Jewish type as 
at all distinct from the Basque. 

An incident happened at Bayonne fort during 
the Peninsular War which seems to have been 
greatly neglected by historians, though Gleig, 
the novelist, in '' The Subaltern," makes much 
of it. The English, believing that peace had 
been declared, resented an unprovoked French 
sortie from Bayonne 's citadel on the tenth of 



Bayonne 419 

April, 1814. This was the last British fight on 
French soil, if fight it was. A number of the 
guards, including four officers, died of wounda 
received at this engagement. 

The following anonymous verses tell the 
story well : 

" For England here they fell. 
Yon sea-like water guards each hero's grave. 
Far Pyrenean heights, mindful, attest 
That here our bravest and our best 
Their supreme proof of love and loyalty gave, 
Dying for England well. 

" Among those distant heights, 
Had many a day the wrathful cannon roared. 
Through black ravine and sunny field of Spain 
War's headlong torrent rolled amain. 
Irun's defile and Bidassoa's ford 
Beheld a hundred fights. 

" Last, by this sea-like wave, 
Threatening the fort our martial lines were drawn. 
Fierce broke upon their watch at midnight hour 
The swift sortie, the bullets' shower. 
Red carnage ceased with slowly wakening dawn. 
France keeps the true and brave." 

A kilometre or two outside the walls of Ba- 
yonne — the same which defied the British in 
1814 — is a guide-post bearing the inscription 
(the writer thinks in English) '' To the Guards' 
Cemetery." Down a by-road around a turning 



420 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

or two, and past a score of vine-clad cottages 
of Basque peasants one comes to the spot in 
question, a little railed-in plot of hallowed 
ground. Here are seen the original weather- 
worn headstones of nearly a century ago, and 
a newer series, practically replicas of the for- 
mer. 

There is also a tablet stating that on this 
spot stood the " Third Guards Camp." That 
is all. It resembles the conventional cemetery 
not at all, and may be considered a memorial, 
nothing more. Certainly there is nothing pa- 
thetic or sad about it, for all is green and bright 
and smiling. If one can put themselves in this 
mood it is certainly a good one in which to 
make a pilgrimage to a city of the dead. 

There is another warlike reminiscence con- 
nected with Bayonne, which is worth recalling, 
and that is that Bayonne was the birthplace of 
the bayonet, as was Troyes (in France) the 
birthplace of that species of weights which is 
not avoirdupois. 

A mid-Victorian writer in England criticized 
Dickens' story in Household Words, called 
** Perils of Certain English Prisoners," 
wherein the soldiers carried bayonets in their 
muskets and cartridges in their haversacks. 
This particular critic nodded, as they some- 



Bayonne 421 

times do. Cartridges were invented in 1586, 
and bayonets first made their appearance at 
Bayonne in 1641, and the scene of Dickens' tale 
was laid a hundred or two years later. 

Those who think that York ham, which even 
the French know as Jamb on d'Yorck, is a su- 
perlative sort of pig-product, should become 
acquainted with the jamhons de Bayonne, from 
Basque pigs, cured with the natural salts of the 
commune of Salies. There is no room left for 
comparison with other hams. Those of Ba- 
yonne are the peers of their class, not forget- 
ting even the sugar-cured variety of the Old 
Dominion. 

There is a considerable chocolate business at 
Bayonne, too, though not with the interior, 
which mostly gets its suioplies from Paris, but 
with the French colonies, notably with the tiny 
market of St. Pierre-et-Miquelon, which, by 
some business pact or reasoning, is held to be 
sacred to the chocolate manufacturers of Ba- 
yonne. 



CHAPTER XXIX 



BI.JiERITZ AND SAINT - JEAN -DE - LITZ 







Biarritz and the Surrounding Country 



If Bayonue is the centre of commercial af- 
fairs for the Basque coimtry, its citizens must 
at any rate go to Biarritz if they want to live 
" the elegant and worldly life." 

The prosperity and luxury of Biarritz is very 

422 



Biarritz and Saint-Jean-de-Luz 423 

recent; it goes back only to the second empire, 
when it was but a village of a thousand souls 
or less, mostly fishermen and women. 

The railway and the automobile omnibus 
make communication with Bayonne to-day easy, 
but formerly folk came and went on a donkey 
side-saddle for two, arranged back to back, like 
the seats on an Irish jaunting-car. If the 
weight were unequal a balance was struck by 
adding cobble-stones on one side or the other, 
the patient donkey not minding in the least. 
This astonishing mode of conveyance was 
known as a cacolet, and replaced the voitures 
and fiacres of other resorts. An occasional ex- 
ample may still be seen, but the jolies Bas- 
qiiaises who conducted them have given way 
to sturdy, bare-legged Basque boys — as pic- 
turesque perhaps, but not so entrancing to the 
view. To voyage '' en cacolet " was the neces- 
sity of our grandfathers ; for us it is an amuse- 
ment only. 

Napoleon III, or rather Eugenie, his spouse, 
was the faithful godfather of Biarritz as a re- 
sort. The Villa Eugenie is no more; it was 
first transformed into a hotel and later des- 
troyed by fire ; but it was the first of the great 
bRttery of villas and hotels which has made 
Biarritz so great that the popularity of Monte 



424 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

Carlo is steadily waning. Biarritz threatens 
to become even more popular; some sixteen 
thousand visitors came to Biarritz in 1899, but 
there were thirty-odd thousand in 1903; while 
the permanent population has risen from two 
thousand, seven hundred in the days of the sec- 
ond empire to twelve thousand, eight hundred 
in 1901. The tiny railway from Bayonne to 
Biarritz transported half a million travellers 
twenty years ago, and a million and a half, or 
nearly that number in 1903 ; the rest, being mil- 
lionaires, or gypsies, came in automobiles or 
caravans. These figures tell eloquently of the 
prosperity of this villegiature imperiale. 

The great beauty of Biarritz is its setting. 
At Monte Carlo the setting is also beautiful, 
ravishingly beautiful, but the architecture, the 
terrace, Monaco's rock and all the rest com- 
bine to make the pleasing ensemble. At Biar- 
ritz the architecture of its casino and the great 
hotels is not of an epoch-making beauty, neither 
are they so delightfully placed. It is the sur- 
rounding stage-setting that is so lovely. Here 
the jagged shore line, the blue waves, the ample 
horizon seaward, are what make it all so charm- 
ing. 

Biarritz as a watering-place has an all the 
year round clientele; in summer the Spanish 



424 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

Carlo is steadily waning. Biaruj.. ., ..atens 
to become even more popular; some sixteen 
thousand visitors came to Biarritz in 1899, but 
there were thirty-odd thousand in 1903; while 
the peimanent population has risen from two 
thousand, seven hundred in the days of the sec- 
ond empire to twelve thousand, eight hundred 
in 1901. The tiny railway from Bayonne to 
Biarritz transported half a million travellers 
twenty years ago, and a million and a half, or 
nearly that number in 1903 ; the rest, being mil- 
lionaires, or gypsies, came in automobiles or 
caravans. These ^ures tell eloquently of the 
prosperity of this^^j^^MMtre imperiale. 

The great beauty of Biarritz is its setting. 
At Monte Carlo the setting is also beautiful, 
ravishingly beautiful, but the architecture, the 
terrace, Monaco's rock and all the rest com- 
bine to make the pleasing ensemble. At Biar- 
ritz the architecture of its (casino and the great 
hotels is not of an epoch-making beauty, neither 
are they so delightfully placed. It is the sur- 
rounding stage-setting that is so lovely. Here 
the jagged shore line, the blue waves, the ample 
horizon seaward, are what make it all so charm- 
ing. 

Biarritz as a watering-place has an all the 
year round clientele; in summer the Spanish 



Biarritz and Saint-Jean-de-Luz 425 

and the French, succeeded in winter by Ameri- 
cans, Germans, and English — with a sprin- 
kling of Russians at all times. 

Biarritz, like Pan, aside from being a really 
delightful winter resort, where one may escape 
the rigours of murky November to March in 
London, is becoming afflicted with a bad case 
of la fievre du sport. There are all kinds of 
sports, some of them reputable enough in their 
place, but the comic-opera fox-hunting which 
takes place at Pau and Biarritz is not one of 
them. It is entirely out of place in this delight- 
ful southland, and most disconcerting it is as 
you are strolling out from Biarritz some bright 
January or February morning, along the St.- 
Jean-de-Luz road, to be brushed to one side by 
a cantering lot of imitation sportsmen and 
women from overseas, and shouted at as if you 
had no rights. This is bad enough, but it is 
worse to have to hear the talk of the cafes and 
hotel lounging-rooms, which is mostly to the 
effect that a fox was '' uncovered " near the 
ninetieth kilometre stone on the Eoute d'Es- 
pagne, and the *' kill " was brought off in the 
little chapel of the Penitents Blanc, where, for 
a moment, you once loitered and rested watch- 
ing the blue waves of the Golfe of Gascogne 
roll in at your feet. It is indeed disconcerting, 



426 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

this eternal interpolation of inappropriate man- 
ners and customs which the grand monde of 
society and sport {sic) is trying to carry round 
with it wherever it goes. 

To what banal depths a jaded social world 
can descend to keep amused — certainly not 
edified — is gathered from the following de- 
scription of a " gymkhana " held at Biarritz 
at a particularly silly period of a silly season. 
It was not a French affair, by the way, but got- 
ten up by visitors. 

The events which attracted the greatest in- 
terest were the " Concours d'addresse," and 
the " pig-sticking." For the first of these, a 
very complicated and intricate course was laid 
out, over which had to be driven an automobile, 
and as it contained almost every obstacle and 
difficulty that can be conceived for a motor-car 
— except a police trap, the strength and qual- 
ity (?) of the various cars as well as the skill 
(??) of the drivers, were put to a very severe 

test. Mr was first both in " tilting at 

the ring " and in the '' pig-sticking " contests, 
the latter being the best item of the show. One 
automobile, with that rara avis, a flying (air- 
inflated dummy) pig attached to it, started off, 
hotly pursued by another, with its owner, lance 
in hand, sitting beside the chauffeur. The air- 



Biarritz and Saint-Jean-de-Luz 427 

inflated quarry in the course of its wild career 
performed some curious antics which provoked 
roars of laughter. Of course every one was 
delighted and edified at this display of wit and 
brain power. The memory of it will probably 
last at Biarritz until somebody suggests an 
automobile race with the drivers and passen- 
gers clad in bathing suits. 

The gambling question at Biarritz has, in 
recent months, become a great one. There have 
been rumours that it was all to be done away 
with, and then again rumours that it would 
still continue. Finally there came the Clemen- 
ceau law, which proposed to close all public 
gambling-places in France, and the smaller " es- 
tablishments ' ' at Biarritz shut their doors with- 
out waiting to learn the validity of the law, but 
the Municipal Casino still did business at the 
old stand. 

The mayor of Biarritz has made strenuous 
representations to the Minister of the Interior 
at Paris in favour of keeping open house at 
the Basque watering-place, urging that the 
town would suffer, and Monte Carlo and San 
Sebastian would thrive at its expense. This is 
probably so, but as the matter is still in abey- 
ance, it will be interesting to see how the situ- 
ation is handled by the authorities. 



428 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

The picturesque ^' Plage des Basques " lies 
to tiie south of the town, bordered with high 
cliffs, which in turn are surmounted with ter- 
races of villas. The charm of it all is incom- 
parable. To the northwest stretches the limpid 
horizon of the Bay of Biscay, and to the south 
the snowy summits of the Pyrenees, and the 
adorable Bays of Saint-Jean-de-Luz and Fon- 
tarabie, while behind, and to the eastward, lies 
the quaint country of the Basques, and the 
mountain trails into Spain in all their savage 
hardiness. 

The offshore translucent waters of the Gulf 
of Gascony were the Sinus Aquitanicus of the 
ancients. A colossal rampart of rocks and sand 
dunes stretches all the way from the Gironde 
to the Bidassoa, without a harbour worthy of 
the name save at Bayonne and Saint-Jean-de- 
Luz. Here the Atlantic waves pound, in time 
of storm, with all the fury with which they 
break upon the rocky coasts of Brittany fur- 
ther north. Perhaps this would not be so, but 
for the fact that the Iberian coast to the south- 
ward runs almost at right angles with that of 
Gascony. As it is, while the climate is mild, 
Biarritz and the other cities on the coasts of 
the Gulf of Gascony have a fair proportion of 



Biarritz and Saint-Jean-de-Luz 429 

what sailors the world over call *' rough 
weather. ' ' 

The waters of the Gascon Gulf are not always 
angry ; most frequently they are calm and blue, 
vivid with a translucence worthy of those of 
Capri, and it is that makes the ' ' Plage de Biar- 
ritz " one of the most popular sea-bathing re- 
sorts in France to-day. It is a fashionable 
watering-place, but it is also, perhaps, the most 
beautifully disposed city to be found in all the 
round of the European coast line, its slightly 
curving slope dominated by a background ter- 
race decorative in itself, but delightfully set off 
with its fringe of dwelling-houses, hotels and 
casinos, Ostend is superbly laid out, but it 
is dreary; Monte Carlo is beautiful, but it is 
ultra; while Trouville is constrained and af- 
fected. Biarritz has the best features of all 
these. 

The fishers of Biarritz, living mostly in the 
tiny houses of the Quartier de I'Atalaye, like 
the Basque sailors of Bayonne and Saint-Jean- 
de-Luz, pursue their trade to the seas of Ice- 
land and Spitzbergen. 

As a whaling-port, before Nantucket and New 
Bedford were discovered by white men, Biar- 
ritz was famous. A '' lettre patent " of Henri 



430 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

IV gave a headquarters to the whalers of the 
old Basque seaport in the following words : 

'* Un lieu sur la coste de la mer Oceane, qu'il 
se decouvre de six et set lieus, tous les navaires 
et barques qui entrent et sortent de la coste 
d'Espaiiie, " 

A dozen miles or so south of Biarritz is 
Saint-Jean-de-Luz. The coquettish little city 
saw in olden times the marriage of Louis XIV 
and Marie Therese of Spain, one of the most 
brilliant episodes of the eighteenth century. In 
the town is still pointed out the Maison Lo- 
habiague, a queer little angle-towered house, 
not in the least pretentious, where lived for a 
time the future queen and Anne d'Autriche as 
well. It is called to-day the Maison de I'ln- 
fante. 

There is another historic edifice here known 
as the Chateau Louis XIV, built by him as a 
residence for occupation " on the day of his 
marriage." It was a whim, doubtless, but a 
worthy one. 

St.-Jean-de-Luz has become a grand pleas- 
ure resort, and its picturesque port has little 
or no commercial activity save such as is in- 
duced by its being a safe port of shelter to 
which ships may run when battled by adverse 
winds and waves as they ply up and down the 











t^ 










St.-J can-dc-Liiz 



Biarritz and Saint-Jean-de-Luz 431 

coasts of the Gascon Gulf. The ancient marine 
opulence of the port has disappeared entirely, 
and the famous goelettes Basques, or what we 
would call schooners, which hunted whales and 
fished for cod in far-off waters in the old days, 
and lent a hand in marine warfare when it was 
on, are no more. All the waterside activity 
to-day is of mere offshore fishing-boats. 

Vauban had planned that Saint-Jean-de-Luz 
should become a great fortified port. Its situ- 
ation and surroundings were admirably suited 
to such a condition, but the project was aban- 
doned by the authorities long years since. 

The fishing industry of Saint-Jean-de-Luz is 
very important. First there is ''la grande 
pecJie," carried on offshore by several small 
steamers and large chaloupes, and bringing to 
market sardines, anchovies, tunny, roach, and 
dorade. Then there is "la petite peche," 
which gets the shallow-bottom fish and shell- 
fish, such as lobsters, prawns, etc. The traffic 
in anchovies is considerable, and is carried on 
by the cooperative plan, the captain or owner 
of the boat taking one part, the owner of the 
nets three parts of one quarter of the haul; 
and the other three-quarters of the entire pro- 
duce being divided equally among the crew. 



432 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

Similar arrangements, on slightly varying 
terms, are made as to other classes of fish. 

Saint-Jean-de-Luz had a population of ten 
thousand two centuries ago ; to-day it has three 
thousand, and most of those take in boarders, 
or in one way or another cater to the hordes 
of visitors who have made of it — or would if 
they could have suppressed its quiet Basque 
charm of colouring and character — a little 
Brighton. 

Not all is lost, but four hundred houses were 
razed in the mid-eighteenth century by a tem- 
pest, and the stable population began to creep 
away; only with recent years an influx of 
strangers has arrived for a week's or a month's 
stay to take their places — if idling butterflies 
of fashion or imaginary invalids can really take 
the place of a hard-working, industrious colony 
of fishermen, who thought no more of sailing 
away to the South Antarctic or the Banks of 
Newfoundland in an eighty-ton whaler than 
they did of seining sardines from a shallop in 
the Gulf of Gascony at their doors. 

Enormous and costly works have been done 
here at Saint-Jean-de-Luz since its hour of 
glory began with the marriage of Louis XIV 
with the Infanta of Spain, just after the cele- 
brated Treaty of the Pyrenees. 



Biarritz and Saint-Jean-de-Luz 433 

The ambitious Louis would have put up his 
equipage and all his royal train at Bayonne, 
but the folk of Saint-Jean would hear of noth- 
ing of the sort. The mere fact that Saint-Jean 
could furnish fodder for the horses, and Ba- 
yonne could not, was the inducement for the 
royal cortege to rest here. Because of this 
event, so says tradition, the king's equerries 
caused the great royal portal of the church to 
be walled up, that other royalties — and mere 
plebeians — might not desecrate it. History is 
not very ample on this point, but local legend 
supplies what the general chronicle ignores. 

On the banks of the Nivelle, in the days of 
Louis XIII, were celebrated shipyards which 
turned out ships of war of three hundred or 
more tons, to battle for their king against 
Spain. In 1627, too, Saint-Jean-de-Luz fur- 
nished fifty ships to Richelieu to break the 
blockade of the He of Re, then being sustained 
by the English. 

One recalls here also the sad affair of the 
Connetable de Bourbon, his conspiracy against 
the king of France, and how when his treachery 
was discovered he fled from court, and, " ac- 
companied by a band of gentlemen," galloped 
off toward the Spnnish frontier. Here at Saint- 
Jean-de-Luz, almost at the very entrance of the 



434 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

easiest gateway into Spain through the Pyre- 
nees, Bourbon was last seen straining every 
power and nerve to escape those who were on 
his trail, and every wit he possessed to secure 
an alliance with the Spanish on behalf of his 
tottering cause, 

" By Our Lady,^' said the king, " such trea- 
son is a blot upon Mjiighthood. Bourbon a man 
as great as ourselves! Can he not be appre- 
hended ere he crosses the frontier? " But no, 
Bourbon, for the time, was safe enough, though 
he met his death in Italy at the siege of Eome 
and his projected Spanish alliance never came 
off anyway. 

Ten or twelve kilometres beyond Saint-Jean- 
de-Luz is Urrugne and its clock tower. Victor 
Hugo rhymed it thus : 

"... Urrugne, 
Nom rauque dont le nom a la rime r^pugne," 

and his words, and the Latin inscription on its 
face, have served to make this little Basque 
village celebrated. 

" Vulnerant omnes, ultima necat." 

Travellers by diligence in the old days, pass- 
ing on the '* Route Royale " from France to 
Spain, stopped to gaze at the Horloge d'Ur- 



Biarritz and Saint-Jean-de-Luz 435 

rugne, and took the motto as something per- 
sonal, in view of the supposed dangers of trav- 
elling by road. To-day the automobilist and 
the traveller by train alike, rush through to 
Hendaye, with never a thought except as to 
what new form of horror the customs inspec- 
tion at the frontier will bring forth. 

Urrugne is worth being better known, albeit 
it is but a dull little Basque village of a couple 
of thousand inhabitants, for in addition it has 
a country inn which is excellent of its kind, if 
primitive. All around is a delightful, green- 
grown landscape, from which, however, the vine 
is absent, the humidity and softness of the cli- 
mate not being conducive to the growth of the 
grape. In some respects the country resembles 
Normandy, and the Basques of these parts, 
curiously enough, produce cider, of an infini- 
tesimal quantity to be sure, compared to the 
product of Normandy or Brittany, but enough 
for the home consumption of those who affect it. 



CHAPTER XXX 

THE BIDASSOA AND THE FKONTIER 

In the western valleys of the Pyrenees, open- 
ing ont into the Landes bordering upon the 
G-olfe de Gascogne, rises the little river Bidas- 
soa, famous in history and romance. To the 
Basques its name is Bastanzubi, and its length 
is but sixty-five kilometres. 

In the upper valley, in Spanish territory, is 
Elizondo, the tiny capital of olden times, and 
three other tiny Spanish towns whose names 
suggest nothing but an old-world existence. 

In its last dozen or fifteen kilometres the 
Bidassoa forms the boundary between France 
and Spain, and mid-stream — below Hendaye, 
the last French station on the railway between 
Paris and Madrid — is the famous He des Fai- 
sans. 

All of this is classic ground. Just across the 
river from Hendaye is Irun, the first station 
on the Spanish railway line. It offers nothing 
special in the way of historical monuments, 
save a fourteenth-century Hotel de Ville and 

436 



The Bidassoa and the Frontier 437 



innumerable old houses. Its characteristics are 
as much French as Spanish, and its speech the 
same, when its people don't talk Basque, 
historic 



(rtoi dciiicdc QeJioSU- tu-dc tSopiiaC- siUuedans ta 
'ncraio. 

i6Sg 






boufUs ccnfcrmces 



A historic mci 
dent of the He des 
Faisans was the fa- 
mous affair of 1526, 
when, after the Bat- 
tle of Pavia, and 
Frangois Premier 
had been made pris- 
oner by Charles V, 
the former was eou- 
changed against his 
two children as hos- 
tages. 

Three years later 
the children them- 
selves were re- 
deemed by another J?e des Faisans 
exchange, this time of much gold and many 
precious " relics," as one learns from the old 
chronicles. 

In 1615, on the same classic spot, as far from 
Spanish territory as from French, Anne of 
Austria, the fiancee of Louis XTTI. was put into 
the hands of the French by the Spanish, who 
received in return Elizabeth of France, fian- 




438 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

cee of Philippe III. Quite a mart the He des 
Faisans had become! The culminating event 
was the signing of the celebrated Traite des 
Pyrenees, on November 7th, 1659. 

When Frangois Premier, fleeing from Ma- 
drid, where he had been the prisoner of Charles 
V, first set foot upon French soil again at this 
imaginary boundary line, he said: '' At last I 
am a king again! Now I am really free." It 
was only through the efforts of his sister that 
Frangois was able to escape his royal jailer. 
He had made promises which he did not intend 
to live up to; the king perjured himself but 
he saved France. 

He rode with all speed from Madrid to meet 
his boys, the Dauphin and the Due d 'Orleans, 
who were to replace him as hostages at Madrid. 
On the river's edge the sons were awaiting 
their father, with an emotion too vivid for de- 
scription. They had no fear, and they entered 
willingly into the plan which was laid down 
for them, but the meeting and the parting was 
most sad. Wild with excitement of liberty be- 
ing so near, Frangois could hardly wait for the 
ferry to take him across, and even waded into 
the river to meet it as they pulled towards it. 
On French soil a splendid retinue awaited him, 



The Bidassoa and the Frontier 439 

and once more the French king was surrounded 
by his luxurious court. 

To-day the Island of Pheasants is hardly 
more than a sand bar, and Mazarin and Don 
Louis de Haro, and their numerous suites would 
have a hard time finding a foothold. The cur- 
rents of the river and the ocean have made of 
it only a pinhead on modern maps. In 1856, 
at the expense of the two countries, a stone 
memorial, with an inscription in French and 
Spanish, was erected to mark the site of this 
fast dwindling island. 

Irun and Feuntarrabia, with the three French 
communes of Biriaton, Behobie and Hendaye 
enjoy reciprocal rights over the waters of the 
estuary of this epoch and history making river. 
This is the result of an agreement of long years 
standing, known as the " Facte de Famille,*' 
an agreement made between the French and 
Spanish Basques (those of the beret bleu with 
the beret rouge) with the concurrence of the 
French and Spanish authorities. 

Crossing the Pont International between 
France and Spain may prove to be an amus- 
ing and memorable sensation. If a man at one 
end of the bridge offers you an umbrella, or 
a parasol, to keep off the sun's rays during 
this promenade, saying that you can leave it 



440 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

with a friend at the other end, don't take it. 
The other who would take it from you may 
be prevented from doing so by a Spanish gen- 
darme or a customs official, who indeed is just 
as likely to catch you first. The fine is " easy '* 
enough for this illicit traffic, but the interna- 
tional complications are many and great. So, 
too, will be the inconveniences to yourself. 

Around the Pont International, on both the 
French and Spanish sides, is as queer a collec- 
tion of stray dogs and cats as one will see out of 
Constantinople. They are of a ^' race impre- 
cise, vraies betes internationales/' the custom- 
house officer tells you, and from their looks 
there 's no denying it. They may not be wicked, 
may only bark and not bite, mew and not 
scratch, but only they themselves know this. 
To the rest of us they look suspicious. 

From Hendaye one may enter Spain by any 
one of three means of communication, — by 
railway, on foot across the Pont de Behobie, 
or by a boat across the Bidassoa. The first 
means is the most frequented; for a piecette 
— that is to say a piece blanche of Spanish 
money, which has the weight and appearance 
of a franc, but a considerably reduced value — 
one can cross by train; a boatman will take 
you for half the price at any time of the day 



The Bidassoa and the Frontier 441 

or night ; and by the Pont International, it costs 
nothing. 

This international bridge belongs half to 
France and half to Spain, the post in the 




The Frontier at Hendaye 

middle bearing the respective arms marking 
the limits of the territorial rights of each. 

This is one of the most curiously ordained 
frontiers in all the world. The people of Ur- 
rugne in France, twenty kilometres distant 
from the frontier, can hold speech freely in 
their mother tongue with those of Feuntarrabia 
in Spain, but officialdom of the customs and 
railway organizations at Hendaye and Irun, 
next-door neighbours, have to translate their 
speech from French to Spanish and vice versa, 



442 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

or have an interpreter who will. Curious anom- 
aly this ! 

Hendaye's chief shrine is a modern one, the 
singularly-built house, on a rock dominating the 
bay, formerly inhabited by Pierre Loti, though 
most of his fellow townsmen knew him only as 
Julian Viaud, Lieutenant de Vaisseau. This, 
though the commander of the miserable little 
gunboat called the '^ Javelot " stationed al- 
ways in the Bidassoa was an Academicien. 

At the French entrance to this important 
frontier bridge one reads on a panel PONT 
INTERNATIONAL; and at the Spanish end, 
PUENTE INTERNACIONAL; and here the 
gendarme of France become the carabiniero of 
Spain. 

Behobie, at the Spanish end of the bridge, 
the French call " the biggest hamlet in Eu- 
rope. ' ' It virtually is a hamlet, but it has some 
of the largest business and industrial enter- 
prises in the country, for here have been estab- 
lished branch houses and factories of many a 
great French industry in order to avoid the 
tariff tax imposed on foreign products in the 
Spanish peninsula. The game has been played 
before elsewhere, but never so successfully as 
here. 

On the Pointe de Ste. Anne, the northern 




ii_ _L*i 



The Bidassoa and the Frontier 443 

boundary of the estuary of the Bidassoa, is a 
monumental chateau, the work of Viollet-le- 
Duc, built by him for the Comte d'Abbadie. 
Modem though it is, its architectural opulence 
is in keeping with the knowledge of its builder 
(the greatest authority on Gothic the world has 
ever known, or ever will know) ; and as a com- 
bination of the excellencies of old-time building 
with modern improvements, this Chateau d'Ab- 
badie stands quite in a class by itself. At the 
death of the widow of the Comte d'Abbadie, 
the chateau was bequeathed by her to the In- 
stitut de France. 

The view seaward from the little peninsula 
upon which the chateau sits is marvellously 
soft and beautiful, and what matter it if the 
fish of the Golfe de Fontarabie to the south 
have no eyes — if indeed his statement be true. 
No oculist or zoologist has said it, but a poet 
has written thus: — 

" Le poisson qui rouvrit I'oeil mort du vienx Tobie 
Se joue au foad du golfe ou dort fontarabie." 

Near by is the Foret d'Yraty, much like most 
of the forests of France, except that this is all 
up and down hill, clinging perilously wherever 
there is enough loose soil for a tree to take root. 

The inhabitants tell you of a '' wild man " 



444 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

discovered here by the shepherds, in 1774, long 
before the days of circus wild men. He was 
tall, well proportioned and covered with hair 
like a bear, and always in a good humour, 
though he did not speak an intelligible lan- 
guage. His chief amusement was sheep-steal- 
ing, and one day it was detemiined to take him 
prisoner. The shepherds and the authorities 
tried for twenty-five years, until finally he dis- 
appeared from view — and so the legend ends. 

Across the estuary of the Bidassoa, in truth, 
the Bale de Fontarabie, the sunsets are of a 
magnificence seldom seen. There may be others 
as gorgeous elsewhere, but none more so, and 
one can well imagine the same refulgent red 
glow, of which historians write, that graced 
the occasion when Cristobal Colon (or his 
Basque precursor) set out into the west. 

In connection with all this neighbouring 
Franco-Espagnol country of the Basques, 
one is bound to recall the great events of these 
last years, both at Biarritz, and at San Sebas- 
tian, across the border. The cachet of the king 
of England's approval has been given to the 
former, and of that of the king of Spain to the 
latter. Already the region has become known 
as the Cote d' Argent, as is the Riviera the 



The Bidassoa and the Frontier 445 

Cote d' Azure, and the north Brittany coast the 
Cote d'Emeraud. 

It was here on the Cote d' Argent that King 
Alfonso did his wooing, his automobile flash- 
ing to and fro between St. Sebastian and Biar- 
ritz, crossing and recrossing the frontier stream 
of the Bidassoa. Bridges of stone and steel 
carry the traffic now, and it passes between Irun 
and Hendaye, higher up the river, but in the 
old days, the days of Frangois I, the passage 
was more picturesquely made by ferry. 

Feuntarrabia is but a stone's throw away, 
sitting, as it were, desolate and forgotten on 
its promontory beyond the sands, and as the 
sun sets, flinging its blood-red radiance over sea 
and shore, the aspect is all very quiet, very 
peaceful, and fair. It is difficult to realize the 
stirring times that once passed over the spot, 
the war thunder that shook the echoes of the 
hills. Maj^ the bloody scenes of the Cote d' Ar- 
gent be over for ever, and its future be as 
happy as King Alfonso's wooing. 

At Feuntarrabia, but a step belond Irun, one 
enters his first tjTDical Spanish town. You know 
this because touts try to sell you, and every one 
else, a lottery ticket, and because the beggars, 
who, apparently, are as numerous as their tribe 
in Naples, quote proverbs at your head. 



446 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

You may understand tliem or you may not, 
but since Spain is the land of proverbs, it is 
but natural that you should meet with them 
forthwith. Here is one, though it is more like 
an enigma; and when translated it becomes 
but an old friend in disguise : — 

<« Un manco escribio una carta, 
Un siega la esta mirando; 
Un mudo la esta leyenda 
Y un sordo la esta escuchando." 

" A handless man a letter did write, 
A dumb dictated it word for word ; 
The person who read it had lost his sight, 
And deaf was he who listened 'and heard." 

One need not be a phenomenal linguist to 
understand this, even in the vernacular. 

Feuntarrabia itself is a cluster of brown-red 
houses piled high along the narrow streets, with 
deep eaves over-hanging grated windows, and 
carved doorways leading to shady courts. 

There is a certain squalid, gone-to-ruin air 
about everything, which, in this case, is but a 
charm; but one can picture from the blazoned 
stone coats-of-arms seen here and there that 
the dwellers of olden time were proud and rev- 
erend seigneurs. 

Feuntarrabia, the little sea-coast town, called 




In Old F cuntarrahia 



The Bidassoa and the Frontier 447 

even by the French la perle de la Bidassoa is 
contrastingly different to Saint-Jean-de-Luz, 
though not twenty kilometres away. It is Span- 
ish to the core, and on the escutcheon above the 
city gate one reads an ancient inscription to 
the effect that it belonged to the kings of Cas- 
tile and was always '' a very noble, very loyal, 
very brave and always faithful city.'* 

Feuntarrabia was once a fortress of renown, 
but that was in the long ago. It was a theatre 
of battles without end. Here Conde was re- 
pulsed, together with the best chivalry of 
France, and it was then that the grateful Span- 
ish king ordered that for evermore it should 
be styled '' the most noble, the most leal, the 
most valorous of cities " — a title which does 
actually appear on legal documents unto this 
day. The Duke of Berwick, King James Stu- 
art's gallant son, once succeeded in taking the 
place, and it was then so utterly dismantled by 
the French that it has never since been reck- 
oned among the fortified places of Spain. But 
the city must indeed have felt the old war 
spirit stir again when it beheld those two great 
generals, Soult and Wellington, strive for vic- 
tory before its hoary walls in 1813. Inch by 
inch the British had forced Napoleon's men 
from Spain; and here on the very frontier of 



448 Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces 

France, Marechal Soult gathered his forces for 
one last desperate stand. No British foot, he 
swore, should dare to touch the soil of France. 
But one chill October day, when the rain was 
falling on the broken, trodden vineyards, and 
the wind came moaning from the sullen sea, 
the word was given along the English ranks to 
pass the Bidassoa. And across the river came 
a line of scarlet fighting men, haggard and 
war-worn, many of them wounded, all of them 
weary. The result of that day is written on 
the annals of military glory as " one of the 
most daring exploits of military genius," 
Long afterwards Soult himself acknowledged 
it was the most splendid episode of the Penin- 
sular War. 



THE END. 



Index 



Abbadie, Chateau d', 443 
Abelles, Seigneurs des, 108 
Accous, 333 
Agde, 24, 28, 55 
Agen, 52. 224 
Aigues-Mortes, 55, 56, 85 
Albret Family, D' , 232, 235, 

256, 260, 261, 267, 270-274, 

280, 281, 310, 340, 344, 345, 

347, 350, 356-367 
Alphonse XIII, 318, 445 
Amanros, Chateau d', 122 
Amboise, 42, 64 
AmeHe-les-Bains, 5, 70, 137, 

138 
Andorra, 47, 140, 144, 146- 

151, 184, 203, 304 
Andorra-Viella, 148 
Arago, FraiK^ois, 103 
Aragon, House of, 96, 97, 

122, 123, 128, 139, 305 
Aramits, 251-252, 328, 344 
Arc, Jeanne d' , 31 
Archachon, 53 
Argeles, 122-123, 3^8 
Ariege, 9, 177 

Arles-en- Provence, iii, 117 
Arles-sur-Tech, 98, 138-139, 

140 
Armagnac, Comte d', 9, 13, 

14, 84. 256. 266, 366 
Armagnac Family, D', 193, 

256-257. 356. 365 
Armendarits, 252, 253 
Arnaud, Abbe Felix, 156-157 



Arneguy, 400 

Arques, 41 

Arreau, 303-304 

Arsinois, Valentine d', 282 

Artagnan, 344 

Arudy, 296 

Ascarat, 400 

Aspremont, Chateau of, 246- 

247 
Athos, 344 
Auch, 8, 225 

Audaux and Its Chateau, 348 
Aude, Departement de 1', 9, 

15, 16 
Avignon, 104 
Avocat-Vieux, L', 198 
Axat, 152. 156, 158-159 
Ax-les-Thermes, 67-68, 70, 

206-209 

Badefols, 76 
Baluffe. Auguste, 152 
Bagneres de Bigorre, 5, 70, 

303, 321. 322, 323 
Bagneres-de-Luchon (see Lu- 

chon) 
Baigorry, Vicomtes de, 397- 

309. 400 
Balaguer, Victor, 176 
Banyuls-sur-Mer, 14. 58, 82, 

128-129 
Barcelona, 3, 56, 58, 81, 82, 

99, 107, 125. 136, 145, 184 
Bareges, 70, 321-322 
Baretous, 250-251, 328-330 



449 



450 



Index 



Bas-Languedoc, 8, 9 

Basque Provinces, 9, 46, 53, 

59, 62, 74-76, 80, 241, 246, 

372-392 
Basse-Navarre, 17, 244, 246, 

354-371, 393 
Basses- Pyrenees, g, 62, 63, 64, 

262, 380, 390 
Bayonne, 7, 13, 24, 53, 62, 64, 

81, 184, 262, 307, 340, 352, 

374 377, 413-421, 422, 423, 

424, 428, 429, 433 
Beam, i, 9, 13, 17, 28, 44, 62, 

76, 84, 176, 177, 186, 191, 

230-296, 311, 336, 342, 354- 

371, 396 
Beam, Vicomtes de, 176, 261, 

267, 283, 284, 296, 324, 325, 

328, 355 
Bedous, 332-333 
Behobie, 439, 440, 442 
Bellegarde, Fortress de, 4, 56, 

81, 136 
Bellocq, Chateau de, 344-345 
Benoit XII, 180 
Benoit XIII, 124 
Beranger, 93 
Bergerac, 13 
Bertrand, Jean, 229 
Betharrem, 310-312 
Bethmale, 220 
Beziers, 15, 24, 55, 85, 122, 

152. 153, 
Biarritz, 2, 3, 46, 54, 60, 61, 

64, 163, i6s, 233, 305, 346, 

377, 378, 384, 417, 422-430, 

444- 445 
Bidache and Its Chateau, 240, 

244-246 
Bidarray, 405, 406 
Bielle, 292-293 
Biert, 220-221 
Bigorre, 3, 5, 9, 50, 70, 84, 

176, 208, 222, 283, 303, 311, 

356, 366 
Bilboa, 99 
Billere, 272 
Biriaton, 439 



Blanca, Jean, 118 
Boileau, 30, 153 
Boniface VIII, 200 
Bordeaux, 8, 12, 13, 15, 28, 

52, 53, 60, 163, 186, 249, 262, 

378 
Born, Bertrand de. Chateau 

of, 76 
Boulbonne, Abbey of, 181 
Bourbon, Antoine de, 366 
Bourbon, Connetable de, 433- 

434 
Bourdette, Chateau de, 202 
Bourg-Madame, 140, 144-146 
Brantome, 302, 370 
Breche de Roland, 50, 254- 

256, 406 
Bruges, 2, 288 
Bunus, 389 
Burgette, 403 
Burgos, 64 

Ccesar, 57, 84, 301, 355 
Cahors, 13 

Camargue, The, 56, 284 
Cambo, 62, 71, 378, 405, 408- 

412 
Camprodon, 140 
Canfranc, 254 
Canet, 118-119 
Capcir, 141, 159-160 
Carcassonne and Its Chateau, 

3, 7, 15, 24, 25, 42, 46, 85, 

102, 104, 121, 152, 153, 154, 

161-174, 184, 210 
Carcassonne, Counts of, 187 

lOQ 

Carol. Tour de, 146 
Castel-Biel. 25-26 
Castelnau-Durban, 214 
Catalogne, 176, 184 
Canterets, 3, 5, 70, 84, 208, 

318-319, 321, 322, 323, 331 
Centulle Family, 231, 265, 

280, 285, 324, 356 
Cerbere and Its Chateau, 106- 

108 
Cerdagne, The, 140-141, 160 



Index 



451 



Ceret, 83, 137, 140 
Cette, 15 
Chalosse, 13, 62 
Charlemagne, 4, 51, 81, 146, 

153, 165, 204-205, 218, 400, 

401, 406 
Charles Martel, 7^-7^ 
Charles I, 142 
Charles V, 64, 116, 120, 315, 

415, 437, 438 
Charles VI, 178 
Charles VII, 306, 415 
Charles VIII, 23, 97, 269, 369 
Charles IX, 368, 416 
Charpentier, Hubert, 311 
Chavilles, 334 
Chelles, 42 
Chenonceaux, 42 
Chilperic, 42 

Cirque de Gavarnie, 254, 307 
Clement V, 227 
Clement VIII, 120 
Clotaire II, 42 
Coarraze and Its Chateau, 

39, 42, 272, 308-310 
Col de Banyuls, 58, 82, 83 
Col de la Carbossiere, 127 
Col de la Perche, 140 
Col de Lladrones, 254 
Col de Perthus, 56-57, 80, 81, 

127, 136, 184 
Col de Puymorins, 146 
Col de Rongevaux, 255, 400 
Collioure, 14, 107, 123-127 
Comminpes, Comte de, 9, 84, 

191, 211, 222-229. 244 
Comminges. Comtes de, 225, 

228-229, 305-306 
Compiegne, 42 
Condi. " The Grand," 97, 181, 

199, 275, 447 
Conflent, 141 
Constant, Benjamin, 172 
Constant, son of Constan- 

tine, 98 
Constantine. 98, 120 
Conti, Prince de, 236 
Convenes, The. 222 



Cortalets, 130 

Coucy, 42 

Couserans, 211-221, 222 

Creil, 42 

Cucugnan, 104 

Dambourges, 344 

Dante, 250 

Daudet, 104, 202 

Dax, 224, 378 

Delcasse, M., 145 

Desperriers, 369 

Despourrins, 87-88 

Dickens, 420-421 

Digne, 185 

Du Bellay, 415 

Dugommier, 123 

Dumas, 236, 249-250, 251, 343, 

344 
Duprat, 277 

Eaux-Bonnes, 5, 70, 289, 293- 

294, 323 
Eaux-Chaudes, 70, 289, 294- 

295, 323 

E^haux, Chateau d', 397, 398 

Edward I, 246 

Edward III, 336-337 

Elissagory, Renaud d', 353 

Elizondo, 436 

Elne, 28, 98, 120-122, 123, 

124, 127 
Erasmus, 370 
Escalde, 145 
Espelette, 412 
Estagel, 103 
Estarbcs, D' , 172 
Evreux Family, 356 
Expilly, Abbi d', 267 
Eysus, 327-328 

Falaisc, 42 

Falguicre, Eugene, 172 
Farges, Chateau de, 399-400 
Favyn, 267 

Fenouillet. Chateau de, 102 
Ferdinand of Aragon, 97, 
357-358, 371 



452 



Index 



Feuntarrabia, 80, 377, 439, 
441, 445-447 

Figueras, 81 

Foix and Its Chateau, 3, 
8, 39, 42, 46, 53- 176, I77> 
181, 182, 184, 185-196, 197, 
199, 202, 209, 213, 214, 315, 

335, 343 
Foix, Comte de, i, 8, 9, 17, 
53, 76, 175-177, 181-184, 

197, 201, 202, 2o8-2oq, 211, 
212, 221, 244, 256, 356, z^^ 

Foix, Counts of, 148, 176-184, 
185, 186, 187, 188, 190-195, 

198, 199, 205, 208, 209, 231, 
268, 311, 342 

Fontainebleau, 42 
Foulques, Nerra, 43, 210 
Fournier, Gaston (see Benoit 

XII) 
Foy, General, 342, 343 
Frangois I, 21, 23, 64, 97, 365, 

41S-416, 437-439, 445 
Frayras, 198 
Froissart, 185, 194, 266, 298, 

309, 335. 336, 338 
Frontignan, 15 

Gabas, 295 

Gan, 277, 288 

Gar at, M., 74 

Gard, 9, 15, 16 

Gascogne, 8, 84, 197, 240, 256, 
273. 286, 355, 356 

Gassion, Jean de, 275-277 

Gaston Phoebus de Foix, 4, 
8, 178-180, 185, 191, 192, 
193, 210, 233, 240, 261, 266, 
267, 268, 310, 315, 336-339, 
342, 343, 344 

Gautier, Theophile, 373 

Gavarnie, 58, 62, 254, 321 

Gibraltar, 3 

Ginestas, 15 

Gorges de Pierre Lys, 3, 156- 

157 
Gorges de St. Georges, 152, 

158-159 



Grammont Family, 244-246, 

358 
Gregory VII, 265 
Grenada, 3, 66 

Grotte de Mas d'Azil, 213-214 
Gudanne, Chateau de, 177 
Guiche, Chateau de, 246 
Gustavus Adolphus, 276 
Guienne, 8, 9, 365 

Hadrian, 354 

Hannibal, 81, 96, 120 

Haro, Don Louis de, 439 

Hastingues, 246 

Haute-Garonne, 9 

Haute-Languedoc, 8, 9 

Hautes- Pyrenees, 9, 84, 87, 
297 

Hendaye, 80, 436, 439, 440- 
442, 445 

Henri II of France, 229, 267 

Henri II of Navarre, 232, 283 

Henri III of France, 367, 368, 
370 

Henri III of Navarre (see 
Henri IV of France) 

Henri IV of France, 3, 7, 13, 
24, 84, 178, 180, 181, 196, 
213, 231, 232, 233-235, 239, 
2/14, 245, 260, 261, 263, 264, 
268, 270-275, 277, 283, 288, 
295, 296, 299, 308-309, 327, 
359, 363, 366-371, 429 

Henry VIII of England, 282 

Herault, 9, 15, 16, 89 

Hospitalet, 140, 146-147, 148 

Honorius III, 188 

Huesca, 47 

Hugo, Victor, 254, 333, 373, 

434 
Huguet, Pierre, 107 

Iholdy, 352, 353 

He des Faisans, 63, 97, 436, 

437-439 
Innocent VIII, 227 
Irun, 80, 436-437, 439, 442, 
445 



Index 



453 



Isabella of Castile, 97, 357 
Itxassou, Chateau, 412 

James I of Aragon, 96 
Jean II of Roussillon, 96-97 
Jurangon, 264, 271 

Lagarde, Fortress of, 139, 

140 
La Bastide-de-Serou, 25, 202 
La Garde, Chateau de, 218 
La Gaucherie, 272 
Laghat, Notre Dame de, 204 
La Guesle, 366 
Landes, The, 9, 13, 52, 53, 59, 

84 
Languedoc, 14, 15. 55, 77, 87, 

197, 201, 238, 240, 286 
Lanne and Its Chateau, 251- 

252 
Laon, Gerard de, 336-337 
Laruns, 287, 288-293, 296 
Larlenque, 198 
Lascaveries, 265 
Lasse and Its Chateau, 398- 

399, 400 
Lastours, Chateau of, 174 
Latour-de-France and Its 

Chateau, 103 
Laurens, Jean Paul, iy2 
Laustan, Chateau de, 407-408 
Le Boulou, 136, 137 
Le Puy, 210 
Les Andelys, 41 
Lescar, 272, 278-284, 285, 302, 

326 
I.csscps, De. 153 
Les Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer 

(sec Saintes Maries) 
Le Vigne, 198 
Levis, Guy de, 200, 201 
Levis-Ajac, Frangois de, 201 
Lezignan, 15 
Limoux. 15, 104, 153, 171, 172, 

173-174 
Littre, 76 
Llagone, 114 
Lorris, Guillaume de, 22 



Lothaire, 122, 124, 128 

Loti, Pierre, 442 

Louis IX, 43, 56, 96, 163, 164, 

208, 256 
Louis X, 18, 364 
Louis XI, 35, 96-97, 116, 119, 

123, 124, 126, 181, 330, 338, 

369 
Louis XIII, 97, 112, 116, 123, 

140, 189, 209, 359, 397, 433, 

437 
Louis XIV, 23, 7:i, 108, 136, 

140, 142, 182, 189, 228, 27s, 

347, 398, 430, 432-433 
Louis XV, 68, 121, 201 
Louis Philippe, 261 
Lourdat, Chateau de, 39, 177, 

209-210 
Lourdes and Its Chateau, 2, 

3, 8, 39, 42, 282, 300, 313- 

317. 
Louvie-Soubiron, 292 
Luchon, 2, 3, 8, 25, 46, 64, 70, 

137, 208, 222, 233, 301, 303, 

304-306, 323 
Luna, Pierre de, 116, 124 
Lunel, 15 

Luther, Martin, 327 
Luz, 320-321, 322, 323 
Luzenac, 209 
Lyons, 28 

Madrid, 3, 64, 67, 81, 99, 184 

Madron, 198 

Majorca. Kings of, 96, 112, 

116, 122, 128 
Mansard, 23 
Marat, 369 

Marbore, Tours de, 255 
Marca, Pierre de, 08, 277, 288 
Marseilles, 3, 28, 48, 115, 117, 

163. 240 
Mas d'Azil, 213-214 
Mauleon and Its Chateau. 2, 

71, 247-250, 252, 378. 387 
Maupassant . Guy dc, no 
Maures, Chateau de, 207 
Mazarin, 439 



454 



Index 



Mazeres and Its Thateau, 2, 

8, 178, 186, 197, 198 
Medici, Catherine de, 234- 

235, 366, 367 
Meilleraye, Marechal de la, 

123 
Mende, 185 
Mercier, 172 
Merimee, Prosper, 163 
Meseray, 365 
Michaud, 267 
Mirabel, Chateau de, 218 
Mirepoix, 184, 193, 200-201 
Moncade Family, 176, 231 
Montauban, 16, 36, 52, 60, 

340 
Montelimar, 17 
Montesquieu, 23 
Montfort, Simon de, 165, 176, 

187, 200 
Montgomery, 311, 313, 339 
Montjoie, 214 
Mont Louis, 81, 144 
Montmorenci, 181 
Montory, 250 
Montpellier, 8, 15, 56 
Montreal, Chateau de, 206, 

247, 349 
Montrejeau, 222 
Montsegur, Chateau de, 201 
Morlaas, 2, 261, 284-286 

Nadaud, Gustave, 162, 170- 

172, 174 
Naples, 125 
Napoleon I, 30, 71, 293, 400, 

447 
Napoleon III, 263, 423 
Narbonne, 15, 55, 120, 127, 

152, 153 
Nassaure, Chateau de, 198 
Navarre, i, 9, 28, 46, 62, y6, 

176, 186, 231, 240, 281, 354- 

371, 396, 403 
Navarre Family, 30, 231, 239, 

256, 280, 330-332 
Navarreux, 2, 345-348 
Navarrino, 8i 



Nay, 2, 310 

Nice, 59, 305 

Nimes, 56, iii 

Noailhan, Chateau de, 218 

Nogarede, Chateau de, 198 

Nogent, 42 

Notre Dame de Chateau, 

127 
Notre Dame de Consolation, 

126 

Odos, Chateau d', 302 
Oloron, 28, 250, 251, 252, 265, 

308, 324-327, 347 
Orphila, Guillaume de Puig 

de, 124 
Orth, Vicomte d', 416 
Orthe, Vicomtes d', 246 
Orthez and Its Chateau, 28, 

186, 308, 325, 335-346, 349 
Ossun and Its Chateau, 300- 

301 

Palada, 138 

Palissy, Bernard, 51 

Pamiers, 53, 181, 186, 196, 
197, 199-200 

Pamplona, 248, 281, 350, 357, 
395, 396, 399, 402-404 

Paris, 3, 28, 31, 42, 56, 64, 67, 
81, 82, 138, 154, 161, 190, 
234, 249, 253, 274, 280, 291, 
292, 377, 378, 379, 384, A2i, 
A27 

Pas de Roland, 405-406 

Pau and Its Chateau, 2, 3, 8, 
9, 24, 39, 42, 46, 47, 60, 61, 
64, 66, III, 121, 163, 186, 
22,2, 233, 245, 252, 258-277, 
279, 283, 285, 288, 300, 301, 
302, 308, 309, 321, 335, 339, 
346, 347, 366, 384, 396, 42s 

Pau, Guillem de, \<yj 

Paul in, 302 

Pave, 127 

Pays-de-Fenouillet, 102 

Pays-Entre-Deux-Mers, 9 

Peille, Chateau de, 139 



Index 



455 



Penticvre et de Perigord, 

Conite de, 232 
Pepin, 96 
Perorade, 246 
Perpignan, 3, 4, 8, 24, 55, 59, 

81, 82, 83, 97, 99, 103, iio- 

121, 124, 127, 131, 133, 134, 

140, 144, 155, 184 
Perthus, 136 
Peyrehorade, 246, 352 
Philippe III, 176, 188, 438 
Philippe IV, 122, 200, 356, 

364 
Philippe V, 364 
Pierre IV of Aragon, 122 
Pierrefonds, 42 
Planes, 98, 144 
Poitiers, Diane de, 229, 416 
Pompey, 56-57, 222 
Pont, De Carsalade du, 134- 

135 
Porta, 146 
Portalet, 81, 253 
Porte, 146, 148 
Port Vendres, 54 
Ponvillon, Emil, 172 
Prades, 141, 142 
Prats-de-Mollo, 4, 7, 81, 139- 

140 
Privas, 185 
Puigcerda, 145-146 
Pujols, Tour des, 122-123 
Pure, Abbe de, 277 
Puylaurens, Chateau de, 24, 

15s . 
Pyrenees-Occidentales, 48, 50, 

50, 80 
Pyrenees-Orientales, 9, 48, 54, 

79. 80, 89, 102 

Quercy, 13 

Queribus, Chateau de, 104 
Quie, Chateau de, 177 
Quillan, 140, 152, 154-158 

Rabcdos, 107, 108 
Ramcau, Jean, 172, 264 
Reni, King, 117 



Richelieu, '03, 181, 189, 214, 

345, 433 
Rxgaud, Hyacinthe, 118 
Rimont, 214 
Rivesaltes, 14, 119, 120 
Rodes, Chateau de, 202 
Rohan, Due de, 181. 276 
Roland, 255, 400-401, 405- 

406 
Ronga. 248 
Rongevaux, 51, 81, 82, 346, 

395, 400-403, 405 
Ronsard, 282, 405 
Rostand, Edmond, 409-411 
Rouen, 28, 249, 366 
Rousseau, 77 
Roussel, 327 
Roussillon, i, 8, 9, 14, 16, 28, 

55, 56, 77, 78-79, 80, 82, 95- 

129, 166, 367 
Roussillon, Chateau, 118 
Roussillon, Princes of, 122, 

124, 128 
Ruscino and Its Chateau, 39, 

98, 118, 127 

Sabart, Notre Dame de, 204- 

205 
St. Abdon, 119 
St. Andre, 127 
St. Bernard, 18 
St. Bertrand de Comminges 

and Its Chateau, 7, 24, 84, 

222-227 
St. Bertrand de I'Isle, 224- 

227, 228 
St. Colome, 293 
St. £tienne-de-Baigorry, 397, 

399 
St. Galdrtc, 119 
St. Gaiidens. 52, 222 
St. Germain, 42 
St. Giles, 56 
St. Girons, 184, 212, 213, 214- 

216. 218, 220 
5"/. Grcgoirc, 224 
St. Hilaire, I53-I54 
St. Hilaire, 154 



456 



Index 



St. Jacques de Compostelle, 

295 
St.-Jean-de-Luz, 54, 63, 04, 

378, 379, 417, 42s, 428, 429- 

434, 447 
St. Jean-de-Vergues, 196 
St. Jean-Pied-de-Port, 9, 28, 

71, 81, 346, 350, 352, 357, 

387-388, 393-400, 403, 40s, 

406 
St. Jerome, 223 
St. Lizier and Its Chateau, 

17s, 211, 212, 216-218, 220 
St. Martin, Abbey of, 132-135 
St. Martin-Lys, 156, 158 
St. Palais, 350-352 
St. Paul-de-Fenouillet, 102 
St. Pe-de-Bigorre, 312-313 
St. Sauveur, 70, 321, 322, 323 
St. Sennen, 119 
Sainte-Marthe, Charles de, 

282 
Saintes Maries, 55, 88-89, 204, 

205 
Salces, 120 
Salies de Beam, 5, 70, 71, 

127, 343-344, 421 
Saluste, GuilJaume, 50 
San Sebastian, 3, 58, 444, 445 
Sarrance, 330-332, 334 
Saumur, 15 

Sauveterre, 347, 348-350 
Saver dun, 197, 198 
Se'x, 218 
Sergius IV, 133 
Sertorius, 222 
Seville, 3, 99 
Sigismond, 124 
Somport, 334 
Soult, Marechal, 341, 343, 

447-448 
Sully, 272 
Sylvestre, Armand, 172 

Tarascon and Its Chateau, 

177, 202-206, 2og 
Tarbes and Its Chateau, 3, 8, 



266, 279, 297-300, 301, 302, 

321, 331, 350 
Tardets, 247, 250, 387 
Teillery, Chateau, 412 
Teres, Jean, 125 
Thiers, M., 183 
Toulouse, 3, 8, 13, 24, 52, 60, 

III, 152, 164, 176, 184, 186, 

197, 212, 224 
Tours, 117 
Trencavel Family, 165, 170 

Ultrera and Its Chateau, 39, 

127 
Urban VIII, 397 
Urdos, 241-243, 253, 334 
Urgel, 149 
Urrugne, 434, 441 
Ussat, 70 

Valbonne, Abbey of, 126 

Val Carlos, 400-403 

Val d'Aran, 48, 52 

Vallespir, 122, 140 

Valois, Marguerite de, 21, 
231, 232, 234-235, 261, 267, 
281-282, 302, 369-370 

Vauhan, 7, 116, 136, 139, 140, 
142, 345, 346, 347, 414, 431 

Verdaguer, Jacinto, 133-134 

Vernet, 70, 143, 323 

Vic-Dessos and Its Chateau, 
177, 206 

Villefranche and Its Cha- 
teau, 81, 141-143 

Villers-Cotterets, 42 

Viollet-le-Duc, 41, 162, 167, 

443 . 
Vittoria, 64 
Voltaire, 23 

Weber, Jean, 409 
Wellington, 63, 341, 343, 
447-448 

Young, Arthur, 262, 351-352 



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